Abahani lose; MSC held
Arambagh Krira Sangha stunned title contenders Abahani with a 1-0 victory in the second match of the opening day of the Walton Federation Cup at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday, thanks to a 25th-minute strike from Mohammad Abdullah.
The unheralded young midfielder beat Abahani goalkeeper Shahidul Alam Sohel with an angular shot from inside the box after he was set up with a defence-splitting pass by Kester Akon.
The runners-up of the KFC Independence Cup, who had started the game with seven national players, found it hard to break the solid defence of Arambagh, who adopted a counter-attacking strategy which paid off brilliantly.
The opening day had earlier witnessed another small upset as Mohammedan Sporting Club were held to a 2-2 draw by Rahmatganj MFS.
In what was a rematch of last edition's opening fixture, the ten-time Federation Cup champions looked like they were on course for a repeat of the scoreline as they took a 2-1 lead after having come from a goal down. But Rahmatganj's Congolese striker Siyo Zunapio, adjudged man-of-the-match, scored his second goal with ten minutes remaining to deny the last edition's semifinalists a winning start.
Mohammedan came into the match with a target of a positive start, but they were stunned to silence in the fourth minute when Zunapio scored the opener and for the rest of the half, the Black and Whites chased their own shadows.
Mohammedan regrouped after the restart and put on a bold performance with Bangoura posing constantly threat in front of goal. The Guinean, who had scored the winning goal in last edition's opening match, scored the equaliser and set up the second goal in space of five minutes.
Bangoura had come close to equalising the margin in the 57th minute with only Rahmatganj goalkeeper Al Amin to beat, but his close-range effort was incredibly cleared by Eleta Benjamin for a corner.
Bangoura, however, made amends by levelling the margin from a rebound on 63 minutes after a volley from Jonny was parried to his path. Five minutes later his back-heel was turned in by Shahadat Hossain as the Black and Whites took the lead.
Mohammedan kept pressing, but Bangoura failed to find the target from close range in the 71st minute despite having rounded off the opposition goalkeeper as defender Rafiqul made a sliding attempt to block the effort.
Having survived the scare, Rahmatganj tried to stand tall and found the equaliser in the 80th minute when Zunapio, availing a through-pass from Faysal Ahmed, ran down the left flank and darted into the box to curl in a left-footed drive into the far corner of the net. The goal denied Mohammedan a winning start and kept Rahmatganj with a shout for the quarterfinals with Team BJMC being the other team in Group D.
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