Bhubaneswar: With two late goals, ATK beat a resilient Real Kashmir FC side 3-1 in the Hero Super Cup pre-quarterfinals played at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar.
The victory has set up ATK for a quarter-final clash against Delhi Dynamos FC on April 5.ATK started the match on Monday with a lot of purposes and almost unlocked the Real Kashmir defence with barely two minutes on the clock. Manuel Lanzarote played in Edu Garcia with a lovely waited through ball, but the Spaniard’s final effort sailed over the bar.The ATK midfield seemed to be dominating the proceedings early on, but Real Kashmir made sure they gave the Kolkata-based side a stern reminder of the danger they pose on the eighth minute. Completely against the flow of the match, Mason Robertson showed his own passing prowess, setting up Koffi Tetteh with room to run in behind the advanced ATK defence. With just Debjit Majumdar in the ATK goal to beat, the striker scuffed his shot wide.
The chance, however, acted as a confidence booster of the Real Kashmir side as they started being a lot more adventurous from then on. Robertson was the central figure for the Snow Leopards, strutting forward at will and even drew a decent save from Debjit.However, it was ATK who would go on to break the deadlock on the 26th minute. Edu found Lanzarote down the right wing and the ATK captain played in a hopeful ball inside the Real Kashmir box on the half turn. Real Kashmir defender Aaron Katebe was caught ball watching at the far post, as Balwant Singh out-jumped him to bury his header inside the goal past a helpless Bilal Husain Khan. (ANI)
