East Bengal bask in derby day win halting Mohun Bagan juggernaut
Saturday, April 08, 2006
East Bengal earned their fourth victory on the trot, edging out arch rivals Mohun Bagan 3-1 in the 10th National Football League for the ONGC Cup at the Yuba Bharati Krirangan, Kolkata today. Within a minute of start Mohun Bagan came within a striking distance as a floater was headed in nicely by Sushil Kumar to set it up for an unmarked Awudu Ibrahim. Although seems to be in offside position Ibrahim, mishit it towards the touchline. But soon East Bengal took control over the match and Bagan looked struggling to match the pace generated by Gouranga, Alvito and Mama, who were kept well fed by Cameroonian medio Ndem and Jayanta. Bagan were reduced to ten men in the 29th minute as Dharamjit Singh lost his cool, kicked Jayanta Sen under referee’s nose and thus giving the referee no choice but to send him off. After a barren first half, East Bengal capitalised on the Mohun Bagan’s lack of stamina and created chances one after another. In the 48th minute, Alvito unleashed a powerful right footer, which was fisted out by Subrata Pal, but the ball landed in the penalty box and opportunist Bhaichung punched home his ninth goal of the NFL. Alvito created the second goal when he run down the middle and picked out Mama who got past AS Firoz to chip a helpless Subrata Paul to make it 2-0. Mohun Bagan, in their bid to comeback, found the net in the 72nd minute when skipper Mehtab’s 35-yarder off a Coffi Agbessi pass went in after a slight deflection. Before Bagan could use the new lease of life, Tomba collapsed on the field with a knee injury with some nine minutes still to go. In the 88th minute taking advantage of arch rivals’ lesser numbers, Bhaichung set it up for Gouranga to put the last nail in the coffin, which the youngster did with immaculate precision.
Alvito D’Cunha was adjudged Man of the Match.
With this win East Bengal raced to 24 points from eleven matches to lead the NFL table.
East Bengal: Naseem Akhtar, Syed Rahim Nabi, Ewane Guy Martial, Anupam Sarkar, Jayanta Sen, Habibur Mondal, Ndem Kiyeck (Kalia Kulothumgan), Mama, Alvito D' Cunha (Dipankar Roy), Gouranga Dutta, Bhaichung Bhutia.
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