Mohun Bagan become first ever team to defend ISL Shield

Late sub Petratos scores injury-time winner for Kolkata giants
KOLKATA: On a night when India and Pakistan were busy playing out cricket's greatest rivalry in Dubai, the sight of hundreds of cars causing a traffic jam on EM Bypass in this part of the world was not normal.
On a night when Indian club football's biggest prize was up for grabs and runaway leaders Mohun Bagan SG were at home, the sight of Jose Molina's team huffing and puffing for a goal in the regulation time, and that too in their formidable fortress, was not normal. Then, everything became normal, almost with a sense of inevitability, at the Salt Lake Stadium on Sunday.
Dimitrios Petratos, coming off the bench late in the second half, received a ball from Manvir Singh, swivelled to transfer his striking power from right to left foot and took an aim towards the goal from the edge of the box. The ball flew past a jungle of feet before settling into the bottom left corner of Odisha FC goalkeeper Amrinder Singh's net.
It was the third of the nine-minute stoppage time but good enough for Mohun Bagan to beat a 10-man Odisha FC 1-0 and become the first Indian club to defend the ISL Shield. Unlike last season when the team under Antonio Lopez Habas required a win over Mumbai City in the last match of the league stage to lay their hands on the Shield, Molina's side sealed the deal with two games in hand.
Their 12th straight wins at home this term also took their tally to 52 points from 22 matches, breaking another new ground in the league and turning nearest rivals FC Goa's late push into insignificance now.
Sergio Lobera's Odisha came here with a plan. They were happy to play second fiddle to Bagan's buccaneering pace and potency, defending in numbers and hoping to catch the hosts off guard with quick counter-offensives whenever such an opportunity presented itself. Their ploy appeared to pay off until the 83rd minute when Mourtada Fall was forced into a challenge from behind on a goal bound Jamie Maclaren inside the D and referee Harish Kundu flashed a straight red card to Odisha's Senegalese defender.
It proved to be a game-changer.
Molina went for an all-out attack, bringing on Jason Cummings in place of defender Tom Aldred. This forced Lobera to react, sacrificing his Piano player Hugo Boumous and bringing in his place more defender in Narender.
The tall order for Odisha suddenly had become even taller. Petratos - who replaced Aldred in the 78th minute - then seized his moment, bringing purpose to the occasion, delving into his trademark stein gun celebration and sending even a hard-nosed Molina to break into a jig.
In the presence of more than 50000 green-and-maroon spectators at the stadium, the lingering anticipation had been palpable even before the kickoff. Bagan dominated, first forcing Amrinder to come up with back-to-back saves denying Greg Stewart and Maclaren in the closing stages of the opening half and Manvir and Maclaren awfully squandering more chances from close after the break.
Thus reprieved, Odisha, now with 29 points from 22 matches, hoped to stay on track for making the playoffs.
Then the visitors suffered the game changing fall through the expulsion of Fall. Bagan suddenly sensed their chances and Petratos made the most of it, sending the stands into rapture.
Odisha's defeat also meant that Jamshedpur have qualified for the playoffs.