Lacklustre Dempo go down against Maged

A lackluster Dempo suffered a 1-2 defeat at the hands of Syrian side Al Maged in their Group E AFC Cup match in Damascus.

Dempo, who had beaten their rivals 1-0 at home, were outclassed by the Syrian side and could have lost by a bigger margin had not goalkeeper Abhijit Mondal saved at least half a dozen shots on target at the Al Abbassiyin Stadium on Tuesday late night.
Dempo are now second behind Al Maged with seven points from five matches and will have to win their last group match against bottom-placed Al Faisaly of Jordan on May 19 in Margao.

Abdulhadi Al Hariri opened the scoring for the Syrian side in the 40th minute and Kenan Al Nama made it 2-0 in the 63rd before Roberto Mendes Silva pulled one back for Dempo in the 67th minute.

Bagan humiliated

Meanwhile, Mohun Bagan suffered their fifth successive defeat in the AFC Cup, this time a 0-5 thrashing by Jordan’s Al Wehdat in their Group ‘D’ away match in Amman.

Mohun Bagan missing regular goalkeeper Sangram Mukherjee, owing to an injury, and defenders Peter Odafe and Habibur Rehman Mondal — all suffering from injuries — leaked goals while the absence of Jose Barreto was felt upfront at the King Abdullah Stadium last night.

Defender NS Manju started it all scoring an own goal in the 28th minute. Issa Al Sapah (29th, 40th) then pumped in two more before Hasan Abdel-Fattah (67th) converted a penalty and Rafat Ali (85th) completed the rout.

Already out of contention for a quarter-final berth, Mohun Bagan were playing for pride but all that the Bhaichung Bhutia-led side could do was concede one less than the 0-6 pounding they received at the hands of Kuwait SC at home on April 21.