ATK Mohun Bagan began their season with a victory over Kerala Blasters in Goa. The Mariners pulled out a 4-2 in their first outing of the new season. The runners up of the previous season picked up all three points in a 6-goal game.
Hugo Boumous, the new signing for ATK, showed exactly what the club had signed him for by scoring a brace. Roy Krishna also opened his scoring account for the new season by converting a penalty within the first thirty minutes of the game.
New recruit Liston Colaco was also impressive for Antonio Habas, as the left-winger picked up an assist and a goal on his debut for ATK Mohun Bagan.
Kerala replied with two goals, the first from Sahil Samad in the 24th minute and the second from Jorge Pereyra in the 70th. However, it just wasn’t enough to turn things in their favour and salvage a point.
The damage inflicted by ATK in the first 50 minutes of the game was too much to turn around for their opponents. In the final stages of the 90, they were happy to sit back and defend against Kerala, who tried to break through time and time again.
ATK are up against arch-rivals SC East Bengal in the first Kolkata derby of the season on the 27th. Kerala, on the other hand, will continue their quest for their first win against last year’s semi finalists NorthEast United on the 25th.
