Mohun Bagan held by Pune FC in Federation Cup

Vasco: Mohun Bagan's chances of making it to the semi-finals hit a roadblock when they were held to a 1-1 draw by gritty Pune FC in their second group league encounter of the Federation Cup football tournament, here on Thursday.

Pune FC have collected four points from two matches while Bagan have logged only two points from as many games. They now have an uphill task of winning both their remaining group league games in order to have any chance of making it to the last-four stage.

The green and maroon brigade, who had better share of scoring opportunities, took the lead through Pierre Boya in the 26th minute and Ryuji Sueoka restored parity for Pune FC from the spot in the 66th minute.

Bagan, who created bagfull of chances, had themselves to blame for not collecting full points due to the profligacy of their strikers.

Pune FC coach Karim Bencherifa started with Sueoka and Eric Brown in attack while Matthew Gonsalves and Luciano Sabrosa filled in at the heart of defence.

His counterpart Sanjoy Sen had Boya partnering Chennayin FC's Balwant Singh in attack while Lalkamal Bhowmick was expected to sit deep as the defensive playmaker in the team.

Bagan who drew their first match against Bengaluru FC were looking forf full points started on attacking note as Sony Norde delivered a perfect cross in the box which was headed by Balwant to Boya, who could only volley it straight to Amrinder Singh in goal, within five minutes of the start.

In the 11th minute, Katsumi Yusa found Balwant with a perfect cross that he controlled well but failed to find the target, sending it narrowly wide of the far post.

Bagan who probed into the rivals had another chance to surge ahead in the 20th minute but Balwant header went over.

Five minutes later, it was Sony Norde again who orchestrated the attack from the left and had his shot blocked by Laramluaha Hmar before Pierre Boya skied his effort from close range.

Mariners after coming close to scoring on few occasions

took the lead in the next minute itself through Boya's bullet header.

It was that man Norde whose first effort from the corner was cleared out back to him and he put in the perfect cross towards Boya from the second effort.An unmarked Boya made no mistake putting his header at the back of the net.

In the 33rd minute, Norde again put in a delightful cross from the left that Balwant chested down towards his strike partner, but Boya could only volley it straight to a grateful Amrinder.

Then it was Balwant's turn to misfire once again as he failed to bury a sitter from about four yards out. In the 42nd minute, Balwant almost pounced on a misunderstanding between Raju Yumnam and Amrinder Singh as he took the ball away from the keeper but could not keep it in eventually, letting the chance slip away.

At the stroke of half time, Katsumi Yusa took Raju for a ride and broke into the box from the right but instead of passing it to an unmarked Boya, chose to go for goal himself and smashed it high with the entire goal staring at him.

Pune FC started the second half much better and Eric's shot was just off target after substitute Thongkhosiem Haokip had flicked on a long ball for Sueoka who found the Liberian on the right.

In the 57th minute, Shilton Paul punched Eric Brown's corner straight to Matthew Gonsalves on the edge of the box who could only volley it over goal.

However Bencharifa's men finally had the equaliser in the 66nd minute after Shouvik Ghosh gave away a penalty after handling Eric's cross from the right.

Ryuji Sueoka made no mistake as he smashed in the spot kick, giving Shilton no chance.

The goal seemed to rekindle their spirits as merely a minute later, Sueoka turned creator as he put in a perfect cross from the left which Haokip could only head it straight to Shilton who made a reflex save. Arata Izumi meanwhile could only find the sidenetting on the rebound.

In the 76th minute, substitute Jeje Lalpekhlua earned a corner after his shot from Katsumi's cross was deflected out. From the ensuing corner he failed to keep his header on target as Katsumi had found him again.