Gokulam Kerala secures top spot as Mohammedan Sporting draws its last match

In another match played at the Naihati Stadium, Rajasthan United FC secured a ticket to the championship leg by playing a goalless draw against Sreenidi Deccan FC.

REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE: Mohammedan's draw meant defending champion Gokulam Kerala FC was confirmed as the topper of the first phase even before it had played the final round-robin match scheduled on Tuesday.

Mohammedan Sporting Club finished the first-phase campaign of I-League by playing out a 1-1 draw against NEROCA FC, at Kalyani Stadium on Monday.

Marcus Joseph fetched the lead for Mohammedan Sporting with a nice header in the second minute of the action. Sergio Mendigutxia levelled the issue by scoring an opportunistic goal in the 13th minute. The rest of the match saw both sides earning a lot of scoring opportunities but all the efforts proved futile in altering the score-line further.

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The draw meant that the defending champion Gokulam Kerala FC (27 points from 11 matches) was confirmed as the topper of the first phase even before it had played the final round-robin match scheduled on Tuesday. Mohammedan Sporting remained second with 26 points from 12 matches while Neroca FC tallied 18 points to move into the fifth spot ahead of Churchill Brothers (17), which has played a match less. In another match played at the Naihati Stadium, Rajasthan United FC secured a ticket to the championship leg by playing a goalless draw against Sreenidi Deccan FC. Rajasthan United ended its first leg campaign with 16 points, which confirmed it the seventh spot ahead of Real Kashmir FC (12 from 11). Sreenidi Deccan finished fourth with 21 points. The results:

(At Kalyani) - NEROCA FC 1 (Sergio Mendigutxia 13) drew with Mohammedan Sporting 1 (Marcus Joseph 2). (At  Naihati): Sreenidi Deccan 0 drew with Rajasthan United 0. Indian Arrows 1 (Brijesh Girl 45+2) lost to Churchill Brothers 2 (Komron Tursonov 47, Momo Cisse 90+4)