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Dempo loses to Al Maged

New Delhi: A lacklustre Dempo lost to 2-1 to Syrian side Al Maged in their Group E AFC Cup match in Damascus on Tuesday.

Dempo, which had won 1-0 at home, was outclassed by the Syrian side.

It could have lost by a bigger margin had not goalkeeper Abhijit Mondal made at least half a dozen saves.

Dempo second

Dempo is now second behind Al Maged with seven points from five matches and will have to win its last group match against bottom-placed Al Faisaly of Jordan on May 19 in Margao.

Al Maged, with 10 points from five matches, is through to the quarterfinals with one match left — against Bahrain’s Al Muharraq (six points) on May 19. 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.

Roberto Mendes Silva pulled one back for Dempo in the 67th minute.

Mondal shines

Mondal first blocked a powerful shot from Al Maged’s Senegalese midfielder Dame Junior Gaye in the sixth minute and then denied Bashar Al Kaddour a few minutes later.

Two other saves off efforts by Samer Aouad and Al Zino kept Mondal busy.

Bagan gets a drubbing

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

Mohun Bagan, missing regular goalkeeper Sangram Mukherjee and defenders Peter Odafe and Habibur Rehman Mondal, leaked goals while the absence of Jose Barreto was felt upfront.

Defender N.S. 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 quarterfinal berth, Mohun Bagan was playing for pride but all that the Baichung Bhutia-led side could do was concede one less than the 6-0 pounding it received at home on April 21. — PTI

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