Foreign players made all the difference was the assessment of both the coaches - Shafiqul Islam Manik of Muktijoddha who was the winner and Maruful Haque of Sheikh Russell who tasted his second defeat in the Bangladesh Premier League yesterday.
On the field, the Nigerian attacking duo of Muktijoddha, Elita Kingsley and Nkowcha Kingsley aided by their compatriot defender Eleta Benjamin and Egyptian Egilank Nagi arrived as a lethal force and probably appeared tougher than Russell had anticipated. “I did not have any specific plan towards the foreign players of Russell. Only the Uruguayan midfielder was marked toughly to stop his distribution, my forward duo played well and I think we are the deserved winners,” said Manik.
“I think we were not getting the goals but today, we scored two goals in a match against the defending champions. The team also absorbed considerable pressure, but the players kept their cool to shrug the pressure off,” he added.
Forward Enamul was also jubilant with the result. The former national forward scored a league goal after a span of nearly two years. “I am enjoying my new role as the attacker behind the forward line. My coach has given me all the liberty and he instructed me to take long range shots, I obeyed him and the goal after a long time definitely raised my confidence. I want to continue scoring and help my team to success,” said the forward, who missed a whole season due to injury.
Russell coach Maruful Haque, who won a treble last year, seemed to be going through a tough time. “I have missed my best eleven in the last three matches. French midfielder Maxim is still unfit, Francisco just took the field today, so it was not possible to put out our best. Pascal Millien, the Haitian forward who just arrived, is in the hospital with food poisoning. I had to go with what I have,” said Maruf.
Mithun Chowdhury, the national forward who paved the way for Moroccan Younnes Roux for the lone goal said there is a problem of communication. “I admit that with Roux we have some problem as he does not understand English. In fact, he does not understand anything apart from Arabic so I think there’s some problem in communication on the field,” said Mithun.