Muktis overcome Sk Russel
Former national striker Enamul Haque continued his impressive form as Muktijoddha Sangsad notched their fourth successive win with a 2-1 victory against title-contenders Sheikh Russel KC in their Manyavar Bangladesh Premier League fixture at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday.
The 31-year-old striker gave Muktijoddha a 21st minute lead -- his fourth in the campaign and ninth of the season – before Paul Emile equalised for the former champions on the half-hour mark. Sheikh Russel were down to ten men after midfielder Hemanta Vincent Biswas was shown the marching orders right after the break and Muktijoddha took full toll of the one-man advantage, with Camara Sabra scoring the winning goal in the 63 rd minute.
The win took All Reds to 12 points, level with leaders Sheikh Jamal DC, while Sheikh Russel stayed in fifth position with six points from three matches.
Sheikh Russel came into the match on the back of a moral boosting 1-0 win over Mohammedan SC, where defender Bojan Petric and goalkeeper Mamun Khan were rock-solid, defying all the attacks from the Black and Whites. But ironically it was those two players who were at fault for conceding the two goals, which saw them already fall six points behind leaders at this early stage of the league.
The first goal resulted when Bojan lost his balance while negotiating a lob from lob from Rokonuzzaman Khan as Enamul latched on to the ball and drove it powerfully onto the upper left corner of the net.
However, the former champions, who were looking far more threatening right through, got their due reward when Emile nodded home a swinging free-kick from Zahid Hossain.
But the game swung decisively in favour of Muktijoddha when Hemanta picked up his second yellow card for tackling Egyptian midfielder Fekry Zeiada from behind two minutes after the restart. And then a dreadful error from Mamun in the 68th minute paved the way for Muktijoddha's winning goal.
The former national team goalkeeper made an unwise choice of coming out of his position as Bojan was struggling to contain Sabra inside the danger zone. Had Mamun stayed at his position he might have had a better chance of dealing with the shot. But instead he went halfway when Sabra dinked the ball over him and into the net.
Sheikh Russel striker Zahid Hasan Emily saw his stoppage time free-kick go inches over bar as the Blue and Whites tasted their first defeat in four matches.
ABAHANI'S 3RD ON THE TROT
Four-time champions Abahani notched up their third consecutive victory, with a comfortable 2-0 win over Team BJMC, in the second match of the day. Midfielder Shahedul Alam put Abahani ahead in the 32nd minute with a diagonal shot from the edge of the box before Abdul Baten Komol latched onto a chip from Nasirul Islam and drove home the second goal in the 36th minute.
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