Sealing the deal: Ogbeche’s winner was the difference in a hard-fought match over ATK MB.
Focus Sports / ISL
| Photo Credit: Shibu Preman
Mercurial Bartholomew Ogbeche showed his class scoring the match-winner in the 86th minute to script defending champion Hyderabad FC’s hard-fought 1-0 win over ATK Mohun Bagan in the Hero ISL championship at Gachibowli Stadium here on Tuesday.
Obgeche, who came in as a substitute in the 79th minute, stunned the ATK MB defence with his artistry on top of the D-box.
Picking up a perfect cross from the left-flank, he dodged past the closely marking defender Slavko Damjanovic to essay a right-footer which caught the rival custodian off-guard and trigger celebrations in the home team camp and the sparse but noisy crowd in the 86th minute.
After struggling to find the desired rhythm in the first-half, HFC showed better coordination and created more scoring opportunities but was thwarted by the alert rival defenders till that Obgeche magic.
ATKMB had its chances to open the lead especially when Federico Revetria failed to find the target from inside the right corner of the box from a Liston Colaco cross from the left-flank in the 71st minute.
Later, a superb run down the left-flank by substitute Kiyan Giridev and one-to-one pass to the sprinting Dimitrios Petratos saw the latter’s left-footer saved by HFC custodian Gurmeet.
Earlier in the first-half, ATKMB messed up many scoring chances because of poor finishing.
First to have a close look at the goal was Dimitrios Petratos whose right-footer was palmed over the bar by the custodian Gurmeet in the 13th minute.
The combine of Petratos, Revetria and Asish Rai worked in tandem to repeatedly test the HFC defence.
One of the very few times HFC came close to scoring was when the speedy Mohammed Yasir essayed a beautiful, long-ranger which just missed the target.
Just when it looked as if HFC seemed to have settled to be more focussed on guarding its citadel, HFC’s Borja Gonzalez’s beautiful left-footer from the left-flank saw the normally effective Javier Toro header miss the target in the 39th minute.
The result:
Hyderabad FC 1 (Ogbeche 86) bt ATK MB 0.
