Delhi: The home return for Punjab FC at the Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi turned sour due to some poor refereeing calls with Mohun Bagan Super Giant winning the tie and moving to the top of the Indian Super League points table on Thursday.
In a match that can be defined in two contrasting halves, Mohun Bagan won 3-1 despite Punjab scoring the first goal and leading throughout the first half.
Here are the major talking points from the match:
Mohun Bagan Super Giant will play against Hyderabad FC on 2 January, 2025 in their home game at the Salt Lake Stadium, while Punjab FC will host Kerala Blasters on 5th of January 2025.
It will be a concern for Punjab FC as they will be without their main foreigners Pulga Vidal and skipper Luka Majcen, with both are suspended due to cards.
The home fans were left frustrated as contentious calls from the referee Rahul Kumar Gupta went against the home team Punjab FC. In the first half, PFC saw a penalty call declined after an alleged handball and foul on Ricky Shabong.
The things went downhill in terms of the refereeing in the second half as first Pulga Vidal was shown two yellow cards resulting in red card for the Argentine.
In the 64th minute, the referee awarded a penalty after Anirudh Thapa fell down in the box but the replays confirmed it to be a dive. Minutes later, the referee showed a yellow card to Luka Majcen who had won the ball fair and square.
Table Toppers Mohun Bagan were stunned in the first half after Punjab FC played brilliantly to lead at the half time. However, the table toppers turned up in the second half to completely upset the rhythm of the home team.
Alberto Rodriguez scored two goals and James McLaren scored from the spot to finish the game for the table toppers.
Usually under fire for his performances, Punjab FC’s Ravi Kumar produced one of the best performances of the season and saved six times to keep the score line 1-3.
He could have done better in the second goal of Alberto but still had a good game overall with three diving saves.
Punjab FC took lead in the 12th minute as Indian youngster Ricky Shabong scored an individual solo goal.
After receiving a ball on the left flank from Asmir Suljic, Ricky went on a dazzling run beyond the Mohun Bagan defence and scored the goal through the legs of Vishal Kaith.
He had a good game overall and the coach will rest his hopes on him against Kerala Blasters FC.
