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A goal in either half, from Roy Krishna and Subhasish Bose, saw ATK Mohun Bagan beat Bengaluru FC in the opener of Group D of the 2021 AFC Cup, at the National Stadium, in Maldives, on Wednesday. Bengaluru manager Marco Pezzaiuoli made two changes to the side that defeated Club Eagles in the playoff on Sunday, as Naorem Roshan Singh and Ajay Chhetri replaced Ashique Kuruniyan and Rohit Kumar. Bagan, who had a busy summer transfer window, handed debuts to Amrinder Singh, Hugo Boumous and Deepak Tangri, while fellow new signings Liston Colaco, Bidyananda Singh, Ashutosh Mehta, Ricky John Shabong, Abhishek Suryavanshi and Kiyan Nassiri were on the bench. A Jayesh Rane effort early on was the first meaningful attack of the match but Amrinder saw his shot fly wide. Bagan's first real opportunity of the game came midway through the first half when Boumous broke free on a counter-attack, shrugged off a challenge from Wangjam and managed to get a shot on target. Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, however, got a strong hand to the strike and parried away. Just past the half hour mark, Bagan broke free again through Boumous, who played Krishna through down the left flank. The striker's attempted pass to David Williams was deflected back into the Boumous' path, but his shot was blocked by Gurpreet's outstretched leg. Antonio Habas' side, who had gained control of the match as it wore on, broke the deadlock in the 39th minute. Carl McHugh's header from a Boumous corner was diverted goalward from point-blank range by Roy Krishna, past a hapless Gurpreet. At half-time, Bengaluru made a change at the break as Danish Farooq replaced Ajay Chhetri. However, it was Bagan who started the second half on the front foot. They doubled their lead just moments after the restart, when Williams found Subhasish in the middle of the box, who turned to find space and smashed the ball low and into the far corner. Bengaluru's first chance of the second period came in the 52nd minute, when Cleiton Silva's swerving effort from the edge of the box forced Amrinder into a good save after Roshan and Wangjam had combined in attack. With Bagan happy to sit back and defend their lead, Bengaluru threw men forward and dominated possession in the closing stages, but couldn't find a way past Habas' well-drilled defence. Habas gave Bidyananda Singh and Liston Colaco their debuts as Bagan closed out the win with a degree of comfort. Bengaluru FC take on Bashundhara Kings on August 21 in their next group stage game, while Bagan take on Maziya later that same day.
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BFC
