BENGALURU: Odds were stacked against Hyderabad FC in their ISL clash against ATK Mohun Bagan at the Fatorda Stadium on Friday with reasons being aplenty. The latter has been one of the best teams in the league this season, winning three of their first four matches.
The Nizams, on the other hand, had problems of their own, with injuries to foreign players.
As a result, they only started with two foreigners. Their coach, Manuel Marquez was also serving a one-game suspension after being shown the red card in the last game.
Despite all these, Hyderabad gave a good account of themselves, coming back from one goal deficit to secure a 1-1 draw, maintaining their unbeaten streak.
ATK might consider themselves unlucky as they did not convert most of the half chances, which came their way. They had around seven shots on target, compared to Hyderabad's two. Even their highly dependent striker Roy Krishna fired blank. But one has to applaud Hyderabad defence and goalkeeper Subrata Paul, who made some important saves in the contest.
Antonio Habas and his men looked a confident unit in the opening exchanges, creating chances for their attackers. In-form forward Krishna was a constant threat. He did pose some serious problems for the Hyderabad defence with his tricky movement and runs in the opposition half, but Subrata stood firm in
between the sticks. He was the busier of the two goalkeepers.
The Nizams did slowly come back into the game with Indian players, including Liston Colaco, Halicharan Narzary, Hitesh Sharma and Nikhil Poojary linking up well. Despite their qualities in the build up, they lacked that telling ball, which could lead to a goal.
Things really kicked up further in the second half and nine minutes into the half, ATK took the lead via Manvir, who used his pace to run through the Hyderabad defence. A little bit of luck helped the ball come back onto his feet and the forward slotted the ball home.
That seemed to fuel Hyderabad, who pressed hard for an equaliser and they did so with Joao Victor converting a penalty after a foul by Manvir in the box.
They looked a much more confident unit and pressed for a winning goal, but one has to say that they really missed the services of their forward Aridane Santana.
Both teams did get their chance to score a winner, but they failed.