AFC Cup 2019 | Minerva Punjab held at home by Manang Marshyangdi
Minerva Punjab’s winless streak in the continental campaign extended to a third game as they were held to a 2-2 draw by Manang Marshyangdi in the Group E game at the Kalinga Stadium, Bhubaneswar. Minerva now sit third on the table with three points from three matches as Chennaiyin FC top with seven.
Both teams had entered the match winless after the first two games with coach Sachin Badadhe making three changes to the Minerva starting lineup, which was held by Abahani Dhaka in the last game as Amandeep Singh, Souvik Das and Bhaskar Roy made way for Akash Sangwan, Moirangthem and Arshdeep Singh. Manang coach Gurung, however, named an unchanged side that had lost 0-2 defeat to Chennaiyin on April 17.
Sreyas Gopalan helped Minerva take an early lead in the first-half and the hosts kept it intact throughout the first 45 minutes before Abhishek Rijal cancelled it in the second half. When all hopes looked lost for Minerva, they got a penalty and Kareem Nurain's spot-kick looked very likely to have sealed a much-needed win for the hosts. However, Oluwawunmi Somide left his header very late in the added time to make it a third consecutive draw for Punjab.
Early on, it was Manang who had got the better of the chances but their lack of quality in the attacking third meant they had to wait till the second half. Punjab took their chance from a corner-kick in the eighth minute when Gopalan capitalized on a failed clearance by Manang as he slotted it from close range.
Gopalan had another chance to double the lead in the 25th minute but he could only head Samuel Lalmuanpuia's cross wide of the goal. A setback came five minutes later when Robert Primus had to be taken off due to an injury with Arashpreet Singh replacing him. And Arashpreet was the one, who conceded a penalty by fouling Oluwashina Azeez. But, goalkeeper Arshdeep Singh saved Arashpreet the blushes by stopping Sujal Shrestha's left-footed spot-kick.
The Nepali club finally got the equalizer they were desperately looking for when Kamal Shrestha went past Akash Sangwan on the right flank at the 69th minute before delivering a low cross into the centre of for Abhishek Rijal to finish it beautifully into the top corner of the net.
Punjab was stubborn in not conceding anymore looking strong at the back and threatening only on the counter. And on one such counter, Biraj Maharjan couldn’t stop himself from fouling Moinuddin Khan inside the box thereby gifting Punjab a penalty. Kareen Nurain stepped up and didn’t make any mistake. This had let Punjab drop their guard in the last few minutes and Manang Marshyangdi exploited it to the best with Kamal Shrestha once again exploiting space to cross from the right flank as Somide headed past the goalkeeper.
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