Tampines through

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Tampines Rovers have qualified for the quarter-finals of the AFC Cup for the third straight season following their straightforward 2-0 win over Mohun Bagan at the Tampines Stadium on Tuesday night.

The hosts were good value for their win playing against an opponent who appeared to run out of steam towards the end of the contest. Unfortunately the Indian Federation Cup Champions appeared to resort to a heavy-handed and physical approach against the Stags after falling two goals behind.

The win was soured as Noh Alam Shah who incidentally scored both of Tampiness goals - will have to sit out the last group match away to Osotpa M-150 FC in Bangkok in a fortnight after being red carded late in the game.

Whether it was a gesture of retaliation at being provoked or more of annoyance at the rough treatment dished out by the Mohun Bagan defence is hard to judge but even before the sending off, the 27-year-old forward had left his mark on the match.

His two goals were pure Alam Shah: clinically taken with a slight dash of flamboyance to them.

There was no hint early on that the Stags would take this one on a canter as the visitors were the ones looking supremely confident but as the match wore on, Mohun Bagan were undone - as so many lesser sides have been already this season - by the wizardry and sheer pace of Brazilian midfielder Peres de Oliveira and Thai wing-merchant Sutee Suksomkit.

And with the hosts controlling much of the proceedings, their defence was barely tested in the first half so much so that former Singapore No.1 Rezal Hassan barely had a touch of the ball before the break.

But he had a much busier second half with Mohun Bagan chasing the game but even the most ardent of Tampines supporters would not have lavished as high the praises that the opposing teams management offered at the post-match media conference.

In excusing his sides loss Mohun Bagans manager Debashis Dutta singled out the efforts of the Tampines shotstopper.

He (Rezal) made some very good saves and kept them in the game in the second half. We struggled on the uneven surface, but Tampines played very well and deserved to win, he said.

In truth the misfiring Mohun Bagan forwards made Rezals job a lot easier than the pre-match talk would have suggested. India football icon Baichung Bhutia and club captain Jose Barreto Ramires should have done a lot better with their efforts in the first half.

At the other end, both Sutee and Peres were carving up the Indian teams defence in style with the former inviting a spectacular save from Mohun Bagan goalkeeper Shilton Paul.

However, for all of Pauls acrobatics he somehow did not present an air of confidence and was found out before too long.

The Mohun Bagans defence was scrambling to clear the lines in the 31st minute as Alam Shah and Sutee combined well to set up a decent goalscoring chance.

And four minutes later Tampines came up with something special.

Not for the first time in the match, Sutee broke free down the left and his deep cross proved lethal when flicked on by Peres into the path of Alam Shah.

Tampiness leading scorer was given all the time and space in the world to set himself up for a brilliant overhead kick which flew past Paul, giving the hosts the lead.

Mohun Bagan began the second half as brightly as they had the first but their enthusiasm and fire soon faded and apart from a volley from Mehtab Hossain that drew a fine save from Rezal, they could hardly muster much.

Time and again they were found wanting as Tampiness ability to break quickly proved to be their downfall.

In the 66th minute, Peres drew four defenders but shrugged them all aside on a mazy run before unselfishly laying the ball back to Alam Shah, who was wide on the left.

Again, there was daylight between the forward and his nearest marker and the No.9 made Mohun Bagan pay with a cool finish to make it 2-0 on the night.

Vorawan Chitavanichs men were never troubled by the opposition as Tampines captain Nazri Nasir, who was rested, was hardly missed.

The bad news is the unavailability of their main source of goals - Alam Shah - for the match in Bangkok.

The contest degraded into a scrappy affair with several skirmishes breaking out in the last twenty minutes but to Tampiness credit, the remaining ten players on the pitch took the heavy handed approach of the visitors in their stride and continued to play positively right until the end.

In the groups other game played at the Shah Alam Stadium on Tuesday, Pahang suffered their fifth loss in the competition after going down 4-0 to Osotpa M-150 FC.

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Tampines Rovers

- Rezal Hassan (gk), Ridhuan Muhamad (Satria Mad 90), Tan Kim Leng, Noh Alam Shah, Peres De Oliveira (Mirko Grabovac 87), Zulkarnaen Zainal, Sutee Suksomkit, Santi Chaiyaphuak, Mustafic Fahrudin, Rafi Ali (capt), Shariff Abdul Samat

Mohun Bagan

- Fabio Vidal, Deepak Mandal, Ravanan Dharmaraj, Jose Barreto Ramires (capt), Paul Shilton (gk), Bhaichung Bhutia (Dipendu Biswas 80), Dulai Biswas (Lal Kamal Bhowmick 56), Sanjeev Maria, Mehtab Hossain (Suman Dutta 7 Cool , Lalawmpula Pachuau, Douglas Santos.

Cautions

Tampines Rovers

- Rafi Ali 25, Mustafic Fahrudin 61, Shariff Abdul Samat 89

Mohun Bagan

- Bhaichung Bhutia 46, Mehtab Hossain 70

Expulsions

Tampines Rovers

- Noh Alam Shah 72

Match Officials

Referee: Abdulhameed Ebrahim (Bahrain)
Asst Referee 1: Sameer Abdulla Ahmed Ebrahim (Bahrain)
Asst Referee 2: Akber Husain Ali Husain (Bahrain)
Reserve Referee: U Hla Tint (Myanmar)
Match Commisioner: Hany Taleb Ballan Safar (Qatar)

CKeer SG

Yay? Laughing

Cheers.
CK