match started and Lalam on the 9th minute gave us a taste of the things to come. Lalam pressurised Gurpreet on the left, who gave a back pass to Abhra, the EB goalie who in turn played it out to Suresh. Suresh played a back pass to Abhra and the ball was intercepted in the East Bengal penalty box by Lalam, who withstanding a tough tackle by Abhra and another East bengal defender managed to stay on his feet and pulled off a stunner as he pivoting on this left leg unleased a right footer! Bagan 1-0 up.
Tough play ensued with slidding tackles flying in from all directions as East bengal tried to pull one back. Just then Edmilson got a free ball on the right side inside the Bagan penalty box. The class of player he is, East bengal supporters would have expected an equiliser, but he kicked it over the bar being charged by Shilton Paul.
A wet and muddy Salt Lake stadium was houseful as reports came that all tickets had been sold out! And believe me when I say all those countless Bagan spectators were getting more than their ticket's worth!
Barreto was heavily marked by Madhab Das who clung onto him like a Koala bear resulting in a few fouls around the East Bengal penalty box. Bagan pressed hard as East Bengal seemed to have lacked that killer instinct even after conceeding one goal.
Lalam moved fast on the left flank and put in a centre which in his atempt to meet, Barreto was pushed and shoveled to ground by Madhab Das inside the penlaty box, and resulting in the inevitable. Penalty...Barreto's calm push to the left of a helpless Abrha who dived to his right.
Bagan 2-0 up. 36 minutes on the clock.
East Bengal seemed utterly clueless with 2-0 down as still Bagan kept the tempo up! Lack of initiative from the East Bengal players saw them 3 goals down in the first half as Venkatesh pushed a right footer past the goalie form the right.
Bagan went into the first half with a 3 goal lead.
Barely a minute had passed after the match had began after the lemon break, when Alvito, East Bengal midfielder left fly a left footer from 35 yards away and a outswinging shot found the back of the net. Certainly a good goal. The Half time break seemed to have brought in a sense of ugency in the East Bengal players as the pushed for a second.
A tough game continued and almost 10 minutes later, a Barreto centre from the left to a surging Venkatesh who put another past Abrha. Bagan 4-1 taking his personal goal tally to 4 goals from 5 matches.
East Bengal continued there attack as they put in a ball into the Bagan penalty box. Rauf khan was there to meet the ball along with Edmilson, but Shilton keeping his goal ungaurded rushed to punch the ball which was more closer the top of the penlty box. He cleared the ball no doubt but it found Alvito who unleashed a grounder. East Bengal pull another one back. 4-2
East bengal seemed a better force after the second half and attacked in full throttle.
A ball from Alvito found Edmilson inside the penalty box, and Odafe in front. Edmilson after showing some skills tried to go past Odafe who made a bad slidding tackle onto to bring down Edmilson, penlaty awarded. Score : 4-3! Just one goal between the two!
East bengal pushed on but Bagan defence some how managed to put the ariel balls out. Another ball loafted into the penalty box saw Shilton Pual advance and then running backwards to push the header off Dipendu for a corner.
Bagan tried to slacken the pace but counter attacked non the less. Once a Lalam centre found Barreto who passed it back to Venky, and quite uncharacteristic of him, put it over the net!
The last few minutes East bengal seemed to have resigned to their fate and tired out couldnot penetrate the Bagan defence and the score line remained 4-3!
Bagan after this match, are on 13 points leading the League table with a goal difference of +12
East Bengal are second with 12 points from equal number of mtches(5 matches) with a goal difference of +10
Team: Shilton,Habibur, Siddique, Odafe, Rauf, Dharamjit(C)[Ishfaq], Lalkamal, Venkatesh, James, Barreto, Lalawmpuia.
No comments:
Post a Comment