Young Kiyan Nassiri scored a brilliant hat-trick on Saturday on his Derby debut as ATK Mohun Bagan came from behind to beat arch-rivals SC East Bengal 3-1 in an ISL VIII match at the Nehru Stadium in Fatorda.
Kiyan, an alumnus of St James’ School and the son of East Bengal’s former Iranian striker Jamshid Nassiri, replaced Dipak Tangri in the 61st minute and scored the treble after Darren Sidoel had given SC East Bengal the lead four minutes before the hour-mark. The dramatic win, ATK Mohun Bagan’s fourth in as many ISL Derbies, propelled the Juan Ferrando-coached side back to the top-four with 19 points from 11 matches.
Kiyan’s hat-trick was only the third in a Derby since Independence. Bhaichung Bhutia (East Bengal, Federation Cup, 1997) and Chidi Edeh (Mohun Bagan, I-League, 2009) scored the previous ones.
Kiyan’s opener came off his first touch in the 64th minute. SC East Bengal captain Adil Khan failed to deal with a Liston Colaco centre and Kiyan’s low curling shot went to the far corner giving rival goalkeeper Arindam Bhattacharya hardly a chance to move. The second was in the second minute of injury time. David Williams’ header off a Colaco delivery hit the bar and the 21-year-old kept his balance and banged it home.
The third came a minute later. Manvir Singh made a darting run into the SC East Bengal box and Adil just managed to send the ball on to Kiyan’s way. He took a second and a rasping shot hit the target at the near post. SC East Bengal did not even know what had hit them, as a beaming Kiyan went for a cartwheel near the rival bench.
The second half saw an edge-of-the-seat contest. Four goals, a penalty miss by Williams, Colaco’s curling shot hitting the far post, Lalrinriana Hnamte volleying straight at Amrinder Singh’s head and Colaco denied again, this time by a Hira Mondal goal-line save.
Of all the four ISL Derbies, Saturday’s was the first when SC East Bengal put up a good fight against their better-organised rivals. The three forwards — Antonio Perosevic, Mahesh Singh and Brazilian Marcelo — showed intent while the midfield and defence held firm giving not much room to the likes of Colaco, and Hugo Boumous.
Mario Rivera’s men could have gone 1-0 up in the 25th minute itself. But Marcelo missed the left bottom corner by an inch after Bagan’s Carl McHugh had hoisted the ball towards his own goal.
