ATK Mohun Bagan made it 3/3 in all the Kolkata derbies played in the ISL yet. The Mariners humiliated their rivals 3-0 in the highly anticipated fixture, and could easily have had more goals if they wished to.
Joni Kauko was named the Hero of the Match. While he did not score for ATK Mohun Bagan, he provided one assist and was instrumental in pulling the strings for the winning team. Mohun Bagan also managed to keep their first clean sheet of the season, after shipping two goals in their previous match.
The first goal came from star forward Roy Krishna, who had an acre of space to himself around the edge of the box. After being found by Pritam Kotal from the right flank, the striker fired the ball past Arindam Bhattacharya. Only two minutes later, Manvir Singh doubled the lead, with a powerful strike to beat the keeper.
Within ten minutes of the second goal, Liston Colaco earned the third goal for ATK Mohun Bagan, following a horrendous defensive error from the East Bengal keeper. Bhattacharya made a mess of an attempt to gather the ball at the edge of the box, and conceded the third goal of the game.
East Bengal made it too easy for their rivals in the match. Thei defensive performance was simply woeful, with the forwards not being marked and closed down. Had ATK been a little more decisive in the final third, we could be seeing a much higher margin of victory. They have, however, shown that they are hungry to win the title this year. And they seem to have the credentials to back that up.
