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Celebrity Clasico 2016 I Bollywood stars give cricketers a run for their money but Yuvi, Rahul save Kohli the blushes

All Stars Football Club and All Heart Football Club offered a thoroughly competitive friendly game which was played to raise funds for the Maharashtra drought.

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Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan vie for the ball as Ranbir Kapoor and Dino Morea look on during the Celebrity Clasico on Saturday
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Bollywood star Abhishek Bachchan had said that the film stars would play their heart out and try to overcome their lack of football talent, but on Saturday, for most part of the Celebrity Clasico 2016, the cine stars had the cricketers on the mat.


Abhishek Bachchan and MS Dhoni share a light moment ahead of the start of the game.

The Kohlis and Dhonis were finding it difficult to breach the defence of All Stars Football Club and the latter were 2-0 up within the first 40 minutes. Eminent director Shoojit Sircar who was left unmarked in the box by the All Heart players made full use of a Dino Morea cross and placed a diving header to the left of goalkeeper Mayank Dagar to thrill junior Bachchan, who was donning the coach's hat, due to an injury. 


 Kohli and Ranbir fight it out in the middle. 

Stunned by the unexpected goal, the Virat Kohli-led outfit tried to fight back but the well-organised All Stars back four were in no mood to relent. As time progressed, the footwork of the cricketers looked patchy and on more than one occasion they gave the ball way too easily. It was then that Bachchan introduced Ranbir Kapoor's trainer Antonio Pecora and he immediately made an impact by firing in a pile driver from outside the penalty area, which took a slight deflection off Indian spinner Ravichandran and crashed into the net.

Kohli and Dhoni had a brief chat before play resumed. They might have been plotting yet another chase.The only difference was that instead of runs, they had to score two goals. A heavily strapped Yuvraj Singh ignited a real spark amongst the sportstars. He made a darting run into the box, took two defenders in stride and unleashed a lethal left-footer, which was stunningly similar to his elegant cover drives, but opposition custodian's outstretched right hand stopped the ball from going in.


During the warm-ups, MSD had donned the keeper's role.

However, the momentum had shifted and the Men in Red were piling up one attack after another. Yuvi soon reaped the benefits of lurking in the penalty area as the All Stars' goalkeeper spilled a long ball while colliding with defender Raj Kundra and Yuvraj tapped it into an empty net.

The second half started off on a rousing note as the capacity crowd at the Andheri Sports Complex in Mumbai egged on a super-charged Kohli. This was supposed to be the home ground of the film stars but the spectators definitely had their own set of favourites. 


Abhishek Bachchan gives last minute instructions to his fellow teammates.

Bachchan's tactical change of pushing down Pecora in defence worked wonders as the super fit foreigner made up for the tired legs of the Bollywood stars and kept the opponents strikers at bay. They were also helped by woodwork as a rasping shot from Bengal batsman Manoj Tiwary struck the cross piece to the utter dismay of substitutes Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan, who were left frustrated in the dug out.

Pecora could have opened up a two-goal lead again when his dribbling skills allowed him a clear shot on goal but he fired wide. Dhoni and Kohli interchanged positions and operated from the right flank in tandem but Pecora and Sachiin Joshi were up to the task. 

Finall,y the cricketers equalised when the Shikhar Dhawan exhibited nibble feet and played the ball on to KL Rahul's path down the left and the Karnataka cricketer made no mistake as he thumped the ball past the All Stars keeper to send the Stadium into frenzy and set up an exciting final ten minutes.


Be it cricket or football, Kohli is always battle ready.

Cricketers looked the favourites to take the game away and Kohli almost got in a position to shoot from inside the box but it was Pecora who again played spoilsport with a well-timed tackle. The Indian Test captain was furious at the referee for not getting a penalty, but the match official rightly denied his claims.


Bollywood actresses Sonakshi Sinha and Shilpa Shetty Kundra.

The match ended with a 2-2 scoreline and although Kohli won the Man of the Match award, he looked a tad disappointed for not clinching the game which they were expected to win. Bachchan and co. showed that they were no pushovers when it comes to football and their competitiveness made the encounter worth watching.

At the end of the day, the 10,000 odd crowd got their money's worth and the biggest achievement was that the objective of helping the farmers affected by Maharashtra drought was fulfilled. 

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