Calcutta: Mohun Bagan on Tuesday were drubbed 0-4 by the Myanmarese national team in Yangon. This was the first of three matches of the team versus the Myanmar national team. The other matches are on Thursday and Saturday.

Mohun Bagan coach Subrata Bhattacharya, speaking over the phone from Yangon to The Telegraph, sounded very dejected. “We just could not play today. Did not manage to get hold of the proceedings. It was a rainy day and it rained through out the match and the ground was extremely soggy, and we failed to get a hold of the midfield and the defence slipped.” He said Sanjeev Maria, in particular, was a disaster in the defence.

And to add to that, the generally dependable Brazilian defender Eduardo Coelho was ordered out by the Myanmarese referee in the second half for a “foul that hardly merited a red card,” as Bhattacharya put it.

“The ground was too soggy, and that created the problem for us, and even though all 16 were fielded (the substitution rule was eased for both sides), the midfield (except Basudeb Mondal and Dharamjit Singh) failed to strike form.

Two goals were scored on each side of the break at a ground with about 12,000 watching. Bhattacharya, though, found “nothing extraordinary about the Myanmarese team, except their two tall forwards who got the better of my weak defence.”

The Bagan team had been berated of late for its poor performance, before the midfielders settled down to their job and Sunil Chhetri, especially, has shown extraordinary form. Brazilian Reggis has been a flop and the two failed again in Yangon. “Yes, we also missed a at least four open chances,” said Bhattacharya, “but there is no point in talking about that now.”