Calcutta, Oct. 9 :
Jubilo 8 Bagan 0
Jubilo Iwata hammered Mohun Bagan 8-0 in their Asian Club Cup second-round tie in Iwata today. According to information received here, the J-League champions scored four goals in each session.
Vladimir Radchenko, who donned Russian colours at the 1994 World Cup, netted thrice ? a penalty in the first half and a brace in the second.
None in the Mohun Bagan ranks had doubted the Calcutta giants would be up against it when they took on the holders of the Asian Club Cup. But little did they visualise losing by an unprecedented eight-goal margin.
The stress had to be on defence, and Nayeem did line up four men in the rear-line and five in midfield. But that wasn?t enough to prevent the deluge of goals.
The lone man upfront was Emeka Achilefu, for the first 20 minutes, and Dipendu Biswas thereafter. The injured Nigerian was in no condition to take the field but was still tried out as ?he?s the only big guy we had and I wanted to take a chance,? Syed Nayeemuddin explained.
A long-ranger nestled into the net to signal the start of Hemanta Dora?s dreadful day in office. As the Jubilo attacks came in torrents, the Mohun Bagan defence ? already exposed this season in the CFL Super Division league ? just fell to pieces. Even a man with Samuel Omollo?s experience panicked and conceded a penalty.
Nayeem was hardly devastated by what was his most embarrassing defeat in his coaching career. ?My team didn?t play bad, everyone fought for the full 90 minutes. But they (Jubilo Iwata) were just too strong for us,? was how the Dronacharya summed it up.
Picking out striker Radchenko and Brazilian stopper-back Edilson as the key men, Nayeem said the two foreigners in the Jubilo line-up made a huge difference. ?The whole team operated like a machine and didn?t give us any chance to do any damage. The difference in class was very apparent. No wonder they spend millions of dollars to maintain and nurture the team.?
Saturday?s return leg match, scheduled at Salt Lake Stadium, has thus been reduced to a formality. Jubilo Iwata will, however, have to make the trip to Calcutta and Mohun Bagan will have to go through the motions ? and hope the visitors are in no mood to pump in eight more.





