Mahindra United got off to a flying start in their campaign for the AFC Cup, scoring a hard fought 2-1 victory over Dhoffar Club of Oman at the Nehru stadium, in Margao, Goa, on Wednesday.
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The Oman side controlled the game throughout and held more of the exchanges, but poor finishing proved their undoing.
Mahindra keeper Naseem Akhtar, who replaced an injured Kalyan Chaubey, made three brilliant saves to prevent the visitors restoring parity.
Dhoffar's only grey area was their defence, which looked jittery when put under pressure, but Mahindra's Patron Raphael, who was set free twice inside the box in the first half, failed exploit the chances to increase the team's lead.
Mahindras suffered a jolt in injury time of the first-half when their defender Odartey Lawson got marching orders from Malaysian referee Ramachandran Krishnan when he got the a second yellow card for a hard tackle on Ahmed Bait Said.
Dhoffar took full advantage of the situation in the second half and restored parity in the 55th minute when Farajallah Al Seem laid a pass to Obenwa Joseph, who beat keeper Akhtar with a low angular drive.
The goal spurred Dhoffar as they made repeated forays in the rival box and nearly took the lead. However, Akhatar made a good diving save to put the ball out of danger off Salah Al Amri's shot off a pass from Saif Ghafari.
Abhishek Yadav put his team ahead in the 66th minute when he beat keeper Ahmed Al Kaaf with a header off a free-kick by Khalid Ahmed.
The visitors, who were desperate to find the equaliser, made an all-out effort but were thwarted by the rival defence,
where Arun Kumar Malhotra stood tall along with keeper Akhtar.
Mahindra coach David Booth praised the entire team for putting up a good show, saying not many teams win while
playing with just ten men.
He also praised keeper Naseem Akhtar for his brilliant efforts under the bar and the Goan crowd for spurring the
team.
Dhoffar coach Milenkovic Zoran, blaming his players for not utisising the second half chances that came their way, said "the team also missed our five regular players".
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