Mohun Bagan bow out of the AFC Cup following a 1-2 defeat to Tampines Rovers FC at the Indira Gandhi Stadium in Guwahati tonight. The Canadian midfielder Jordan Webb opened the scoring for the visitors after the hour-mark but Bikramjit Singh cancelled their lead within nine minutes. Three minutes to the final whistle of the second half of the extra time, Afiq Bin Yunos, the sturdy defender of the Singapore-side smacked the back of the net from a well-taken free kick by Jermaine Pennant.

Mohun Bagan started the game on the backfoot as 5 players from the Hero Federation Cup winning team were going to miss the match. Arnab Das Sharma, who already had a handful experience of plying his trade in AFC Cup, was handed the gloves in the absence of Debjit Majumder, who had to give tonight’s match a miss owing to his injury.

Both outfits started the game cautiously and none came close to scoring the opener in the first 45 minutes. Shakir Hamzah was given the marching order on 54 minutes after getting booked first in the 51st minute. After the hour mark, the visitors suddenly found themselves in the driving seat when Jordan Webb’s loopy long ball dipped towards the net and Arnab Das Sharma misjudged it to provide a lead to the Singapore side.

Nine minutes later, Bikramjit Singh, who is on a goal-scoring spree at the moment, hammered a blinder from 25-yard out to send the Mohun Bagan bench into a delirium. Towards the end of the regulation time, both teams were looking jaded and they preferred to hold their boxes rather than to show an urge to hurl the opponents again.

Three minutes to the end of the second half of the Extra time, Tampines Rovers were awarded a free kick at the top of the box. Ex-Liverpool FC ace player Jermaine Pennant took a cheeky ground shot which was slotted home by Afiq Bin Yunos. Mohun Bagan, who were already exhausted their three substitutions, almost played with nine players towards the end owing to the calf-injury of Bikramjit Singh and hamstring-injury of Raju Gaikwad.

Following the win, Tampines Rovers cement their berth in the quarter-finals of AFC Cup 2016 which is scheduled to commence on September, 2016.