I-League Media Team

PUNE: Pune FC slumped to their third successive home defeat and ended their home campaign on low note when they lost to league leaders Mohun Bagan 0-2 in Round-19 match of the Hero I-league football championship at Balewadi Sports Complex here on Saturday.

Having dropped points, Pune FC (23 points) stayed in the fifth place while Mohun Bagan (31) increased their lead at the top.

Pune FC Coach Karim Bencherifa had made four changes handing starts to Srikanth Ramu, Darko Nikac, Edgar Marcelino and Dhanpal Ganesh.

Bagan, who maintained their lead at the top of the table earning 3 full points, started very impressively. The Mariners attacked Pune FC’s goalkeeper Arminder Singh in the very first minute of the game through Jeje Lalpekhula.

Kolkata side reaped the reward of good start in the sixth minute when they caught Pune FC defence sleeping. Sony Node snatched the ball in the mid-field and sent a lovely through ball to Denson Devdas who ran into the penalty box, and caused havoc in the Pune defence, which caused confusion between ‘keeper Singh and defender Luciano Sobrosa, but the ball chipped across Devdas and crashed against far post and fell kindly to Jeje.

Jeje’s first shot at goal was saved, by defender but second loose ball went into the back of the net to give for simple tap-in as Bagan took an early lead.

The frustration of early set back looked to creep in as Munmun Lugan was booked by the referee. In the 10th minute hosts defence was all over the place as Norde once again ran past Pune’s defence and found Jeje with another through ball who found himself one-on-one with Arminder but his shot flew inches away from the far post.

Norde gave Pune FC’s defence all sorts of problems with his clever play down the left wing throughout the first half as most of the chances fell to the visitors, as Pune FC striker Darco Nikac looked lonely figure up front.

The second goal came in the 76th minute through winger Katsumi Yusa as Pune FC suffered their fifth loss of the season.  Norde’s deep cross in from the left was headed home by Katsumi from close range leaving Amrinder no chance.

Pune FC tried hard in the final quarter but were fell short. They had a chance in the 81st minute when Luciano Sabrosa took a crack on a second ball from range, but his effort was saved by the Bagan keeper.