Resurgent Mohun Bagan's distant title aspirations were handed a rude reality check by a determined Air-India who held the three-time NFL champions to a goalless draw in an exciting 13th round I-League match at the Cooperage Ground in Mumbai on Sunday.
The tie means that the maroon & green outfit, who took their points tally to 21 and continue in fourth place, may have ruled themselves out of the title if Dempo beats East Bengal in Kolkata later in the evening and increases the lead.
The local side, who lost 0-2 in their first leg meeting in which coach Bimal Ghosh claimed they played much better, now haev 15 points and occupy sixth position, a comfortable distance away from the danger zone.
The visitors set off at a hectic pace right from the start with Jonathan 'Bobo' Chimezie, Dharamjit Singh and Lalkamal Bhowmick orchestrating repeated attacks from the midfield. However, with both Baichung Bhutia and Jose Barreto being tightly policed, clear openings were scarce to come by.
The Air-India defenders played their hearts out, in particular stopper back Suley Musah, goalkeeper Arnab Das Sarma, who kept out two long-range tries from Mohan Raj and substitute P C Lalawmpuia late in the second half, and man-of-the-match Michael Tayo.
The Nigerian defensive midfielder was in his element, playing the spoiler's role to perfection while initiating a few attacks of his own.
However, with skipper Paresh Shivalkar sitting out due to injury, the airmen could not take the f(l)ight to the enemy camp as much as they would have wanted to.
Still, Air-India came up with a few chances that could have killed the match had they been taken.
The best was in the 21st minute when a lightning counter saw Bashiru Abbas dribble past Sangram Mukherjee after accepting a none-too-accurate Sanju Pradhan pass. But the Nigerian striker drifted wide in the process and his angular shot was deflected on the goalline for a flag kick with the custodian out of his charge.
Samson Singh too could have got onto the scoresheet from another counter-attack but his opportunistic try swerved over in the 61st minute.
Finally, with two minutes to go for the final whistle, Bashiru laid a perfect through for Narendra Meetei but the Manipuri substitute muffed his shot from a good position.
The visitors too had their shies at the rival goal, the most heartstopping one coming in the 61st minute when a Barreto header off a Dharamjit corner was blocked on the goalline by Vijith Shetty before it was cleared to safety.
Mohun Bagan coach Carlos Roberto Pereira threw in two offensive players, Lalawmpuia and Ishfaq Ahmed, in the second session with a view to grabbing full points.
But to no avail as neither the reserves nor Bagan's 'iconic duo', who began flagging, could turn the tide and bring spirited Air-India crashing down to terra firma.
Air-India fly to Kolkata for a bust up with struggling East Bengal on Jan 30 while Mohun Bagan too take on second placed Churchill Brothers in the 'city of joy' in a crucial match the next day.
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