BENGALURU: ATK Mohun Bagan reached the Indian Super League final after beating NorthEast United FC 2-1 ( 3-2 on aggregate) in the second leg of the semifinal at the Fatorda Stadium on Tuesday.
After having started the season on a high with five wins from seven games, they were one of the favourites for the title, but questions were raised after they seemed to have lost steam in the last few games of the group stages and the first leg against the Highlanders.
They had a point to prove in the second leg and the Mariners came up with a performance to remember. They showed their attacking side with goals from David Williams and Manvir Singh. Though Suhair Vadakkepeedika scored one in the second half, Luis Machado's penalty miss late into the game proved costly as Khalid Jamil lost his first game of the season as well as an interim coach.
It was quite evident that the Mariners were more than eager to reach the title-decider. They started the game on a bright note, asking questions to the opposition defenders on a regular basis early on. They almost took the lead in the third minute as Javier Hernandez's effort from outside the box struck the post.
That gave their team the much-needed confidence and the Mariners began to attack every second minute, threatening to break the deadlock. It was Williams, who managed to help his team score first with a brilliant strike after a fine ball by Roy Krishna. The Australian used his pace and strength to get past defenders to score an important goal in the 38th minute.
The goal came at the wrong time for NorthEast, who were gradually getting into the game. However, the first half completely belonged to Antonio Habas and his men, who had an incredible 16 attempts on goal.
With NorthEast, who could not cope with the brilliance of ATK in the first 45, playing catching up in the second half, there was a serious need for them to get off the blocks quickly. And they did so, but Suhair's effort on goal was brilliantly saved by Arindam Bhattacharya to ensure his team maintained that lead.
NorthEast looked a much better unit in the final third, but they could not score the equaliser. With every passing minute in the half, they committed more men forward and that cost them badly in the 68th minute. Krishna received the ball in his own half and passed to Manvir, who managed to double their lead.
That goal had more or less put the game on the bed, but NorthEast made matters really interesting as Suhair pulled one back in the 74th minute. They should have in fact equalised a few minutes later, but Machado missed a penalty. His spot kick went over the bar.