At the half-hour mark, Joel Sunday earned a free kick for his side from close quarters but Manandeep Singh’s effort was too feeble to trouble Albino Gomes in goal. In spite of enjoying the lion’s share of possession, Aizawl struggled to breach the Punjab backline that defended with aplomb. In fact, it was the away side that almost nicked a goal on the counter with Manandeep Singh being fouled just outside the box by Kingsley but Joel Sunday failed to do justice to the set piece situation.
Just after the breather, Aizawl almost opened the scoring but Kamo failed to direct Lalruatthara’s pinpoint cross. It was all Aizawl in the second-half with two back to back chances coming their way after the 70th minute. First, it was Zohmingliana who was left unmarked following a corner kick but was guilty of failing to make proper connection with the ball. Al Amenah then put in a lovely through ball to put substitute Laldanmawia on the way down the right and he put in a perfect cross in but Lalruatthara’s header went straight to Ravi Kumar.
Al Amenah continued to exert tremendous influence on the proceedings as he again found Kamo with a defence-splitting pass but the forward failed to get past Ravi Kumar who ended up injuring himself in the process.
It was no surprise that the Syrian midfielder would turn up as the eventual saviour for the team. Deep in injury time, Al Amenah’s corner kick was directed into the net by Ashutosh Mehta, who was introduced into the match only about ten minutes ago, leaving substitute keeper Kamaljit Singh confounded. The late goal handed Aizawl a win which sees them go top of the table while Punjab will consider themselves desperately unlucky to have lost a point. While Khalid Jamil’s team welcome Shillong Lajong in their next match, Punjab face the tough task of travelling to the Rabindra Sarobar Stadium to take on Mohun Bagan.
