Marquee player Simao Sabrosa once again gave NorthEast United FC reasons to cheer on a Saturday evening as he converted from a penalty in the 9th minute to help his side record a 1-0 victory against Atletico de Kolkata at the Salt Lake Stadium in the City of Joy.
This is NorthEast United FC's third win of the season.
The first half was a cracker of a contest as there were end-to-end action throughout the 45 minutes, that saw chances falling for both sides and the two goalkeepers doing their best to prevent the other team from scoring.
NorthEast United marquee player Simao started where he left in the last game as he scored the opener for his side by a penalty once again to give them the much-needed first blood. The spot kick was awarded by the referee after a challenge saw Carlos Lopez brought down by ATK defender Ofentse Nato inside the box.
Amrinder Singh dived in the right direction, but the powerful ball from Simao was unstoppable and it blasted the top corner.
Catch the goal HERE.
That was not the end of the action as Atletico de Kolkata kept pushing for the equaliser soon after, and Jaime Gavilan remained a constant threat through his set pieces, and kept Rehenesh unsettled throughout the half.
Mohammed Rafique, playing his first game in the ISL season 2, gelled up with Iain Hume upfront for the home side, and created a lot of scoring opportunities. Hume, the last game's hat-trick hero, will be ruing the amount of chances he missed, but Antonio Habas must be happy to see the Canandian and the Indian combine to create so many chances.
For the away side, it was Simao and Nico Velez who were completely dominating the counter-attack for them. The combination between the Portuguese and the Argentine really brought the enormous Salt Lake Stadium alight and the huge amount of away fans kept cheering every single move they were creating.
It was 1-0 in favour of Cesar Farias' side at half time.
NorthEast custodian Rehenesh came under constant threat from Borja Fernandes as the Spaniard came in to the attacking fore in the second half and constantly kept pulling the trigger and taking some dangerous from the free-kicks.
There was a brilliant interception from Andre Bikey in the 66th minute to deny a clean through Iain Hume score the equaliser of the match.
Farias brought on the attacking trio of Diomansy Kamara, Francis Dadzie, and Sanju Pradhan in the closing stages, and they combined to create a host of chances at the death. The match could have ended 3-0 if not Dadzie and Kamara had missed sitters just before the end of the match.
