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Barcelona Legends hammered Mohun Bagan legends 6-0 in front of an energetic crowd at the Salt Lake Stadium on Friday evening. The city witnessed flair of tiki-taka as former players like Jari Litmanen, Javier Saviola and Edmilson showing their skills in the ‘City of Joy.’ The green and maroon brigade also fielded former ex-players like Syed Rahim Nabi, Habibur Rahman Mondal and Sandip Nandy.
Mohun Bagan legends made a couple of positive moves in the opening minutes with Ashim Biswas at the peak of things but failed to convert. Following which, the Spanish team dominated the game throughout the first half. Barcelona Legends opened the scoring in the 7th minute via a precise strike from Argentine great Javier Saviola. An equally brilliant assist from Jofre fell perfectly for the forward who made no mistake but to slot the ball inside the target.
Roger doubled the lead in the 29th minute with a grass cutter after receiving a nice ball from Saviola. The hosts conceded a penalty just a few minutes before the first half, Landi converted from the spot to take a 3-0 lead much to the agony of the strong Mohun Bagan crowd which gathered at the stands. Meanwhile, Syed Rahim Nabi, Shashti Duley and Dulala Biswas tried hard to make a mark in the encounter but never came close to scoring.
Bagan’s shot-stopper Kalyan Choubey made an acrobatic save in the 57th minute to deny Barcelona Legends the fourth goal. Finnish legend Litmanen made it 4-0 in the 63rd minute after the visitors played a string of passes among themselves, Kalyan could have blocked it, but somehow the ball rolled on inside the net. Mohun Bagan made several changes but never managed to pierce the Barcelona defence.
The European team piled on Bagan’s agony by scoring the fifth goal by a header to seal the deal. Belletti made a perfect assist to set up Jofre for the sixth and final goal of the evening. Barcelona Legends played much better football than their opponents and deserved the win!
