ISL 2020-21: Antonio Lopez Habas hails ATK Mohun Bagan boys following positive win over SC East Bengal

By Team Newsable | First Published Feb 20, 2021, 11:01 AM IST

ATK Mohun Bagan continued to stay atop the Indian Super League 2020-21 table with this win, while SC East Bengal lurks at ninth place. Both sides are making their ISL debut this season. Traditionally, MB was the most successful Indian football club before the ATK merger.

Indian Super League giant ATK Mohun Bagan showed no signs of slowing down, despite having qualified for the 2020-21 Indian Super League playoffs. It outplayed arch-rival SC East Bengal during the Kolkata Derby at the Fatorda Stadium in Bengaluru on Friday, as ATKMB stayed atop the table, while SCEB remained at ninth.

It all began with Roy Krishna's opening strike in the 15th minute, which handed ATKMB the lead, while Tiri's own goal in the 41st minute allowed SCEB to pull one back. Nonetheless, David Williams restored ATKMB's lead in the 72nd minute, while Javi Hernandez scored the winner at 89th.

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Following the game, ATKMB boss Antonio Lopez Habas hailed his boys for playing positively throughout the game. "I'm very proud of my players. It's about the positivity in the side. Five wins in a row is not easy. I'm not thinking about the Shield yet, but it's good to be on top of the table. Again, the Kolkata derby is the biggest football match of the country," he said, reports Sportstar.

ALSO READ: All-round Roy Krishna allows ATK Mohun Bagan to complete season double over SC East Bengal

"So, beating SC East Bengal two times in a season is a great thing. Roy Krishna is a special player. David Williams complements him well. We have another game against Hyderabad FC in two days. So, we need to move on from this and keep executing our plan to perfection," he added.

Meanwhile, SCEB defender Jacques Maghoma defended his side for having played a decent game. "I think we played well today. Any derby is always big and today, we missed our fans. We were the better side after the first half equaliser. But, we failed to capitalise on it. If you see the goals we conceded tonight, ATK Mohun Bagan didn't run through us," he reckoned.

"We committed a few costly errors and ended up on the losing side. We could have scored more goals in the second half, but that's been the story of our season. We need to regroup, pick ourselves up and work hard to win the last two games. We can improve," he concluded.

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