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Former champions ATK scored a 3-1 win over high flying Jamshedpur FC on a stormy Saturday evening at the Saltlake Stadium.
An evasive first half witnessed the home team dominating the attack against a defensive Jamshedpur FC. The contest was a complete tactical battle between the head coaches, Antonio Lopez Habas and Antonio Iriondo. Both sides had a few opportunities to capitalize on in the opening 45-minutes of the match, but the closest either of the teams came to converting a chance to goal was when forward, Farukh Choudhary, hit the crossbar with his header as early as the 8th minute of the match. Jayesh Rane was seen firing a few long-ranged attempts at Subrata Paul’s net but failed to convert, while David Williams highly influenced ATK’s attacks in the final third of the field, testing Tiri and Co. regularly.
Coach Iriondo was forced to withdraw his Spanish midfield maestro Piti courtesy a hamstring injury early on in the game replacing him with fellow Spaniard Noe Acosta minutes before the half-time whistle.
In the second half, ATK came out with rehabilitated dynamism and the aggressive pace and approach from the home team persistently posed a peril for Jamshedpur FC’s defense line. ATK captain, Roy Krishna was brought down a couple of times inside visitors’ box by Tiri. The Fiji international made no mistake in converting from the spot on both occasions to put ATK in the driving seat at the Saltlake Stadium. Jamshedpur FC found a way back in the 85th minute through Sergio Castel, who scored off the third penalty of the night.
ATK’s super-sub Edu Garcia made an instant impact after being brought on in place of Javi Hernandez in the 75th minute of the match. The former Bengaluru FC man put the icing on the cake for his side when he found the back of the net in the 94th minute after dinking Roy Krishna’s pass over Subrata Paul and seal the three points for the home side.
After tonight’s battle ATK have secured the top spot of the points table in ISL 2019-20 with nine points from four matches played. The two-time ISL champions will go into the international break in a comfortable position leading the points table. Jamshedpur FC had their unbeaten streak broken tonight and have been pushed into fourth spot with seven points on the charts.
