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East Bengal defeated Singapore champions Tampines Rovers 2-1 in a Group H encounter of the AFC Cup to move ever closer to the round of 16. Edeh Chidi gave East Bengal the lead in the first half but the red-and-gold brigade were very wasteful throughout and Tampines Rovers equalised in the second half from a Shaiful Esah freekick. However, the Kolkata club had the last laugh as Lalrindika Ralte scored a delightful late winner.
The win takes East Bengal to ten points from four matches and if Vietnam’s Sai Gon Xuan Thanh avoid defeat against Malaysia’s Selangor later today, the I-League side will book their place in the knockout stage for the first time since 2004.
There were two surprise omissions in East Bengal’s starting eleven as both Uga Okpara and Edeh Chidi were named on the bench, which allowed a rare start for Manandeep Singh, while Raju Gaikwad and Gurwinder Singh formed an all-Indian center-back partnership. Abhijit Mondal retained his place in goal.
Tampines Rovers coach Nenad Bacina made four changes to the XI that started last week, with 42-year-old Aleksandar Duric operating as the lone striker in a 4-2-3-1 system and skipper Fahruddin Mustafic making his return from suspension. Strikers Sead Hadzibulic and Khairul Amri were both among the substitutes.
With the match kicking off at 3:15 pm in the afternoon and the temperature soaring above 40 degrees in Kolkata, both teams struggled to get going in the early stages. Some debris following last week’s IPL opening ceremony was also still visible on the artificial turf.
The first chance fell to East Bengal skipper Sanju Pradhan after he was found inside the box by Barisic but the Sikkimese’s effort was off target.
Trevor Morgan made an early substitution as Barisic made way for Chidi; the reason wasn’t clear but the Australian certainly looked to have a problem.
Tampines had done their warm-up under the shade on the sidelines and clearly couldn’t cope with the conditions as they were playing at walking pace, while East Bengal were happy to play on counter attacks and made the most of the Singapore club’s high defensive line as they kept getting behind their back four.
The red-and-gold brigade went in front when Chidi was sent clean through on goal by Manandeep and the Nigerian finished with ease to net his second goal in this AFC Cup.
Tampines were keeping possession in spells but were never really threatening to score and could have easily been two or three down had East Bengal been clinical.
The Kolkata club were consistently getting behind the Tampines’ defence but one move summed up their wasteful finishing as Chidi, Manandeep and Penn could only test Sasa Dreven from close range.
Another chance went begging minutes later as Chidi was once again clean through on goal, but he delayed and then passed to Lalrindika Ralte who skied his effort from four yards. Just before the break, Ralte narrowly missed the target from 25 yards after being given the time and space to shoot.
The conditions were much better in the second half as there were shadows all over the pitch and that allowed Tampines to come into the game a bit, and they had their first effort as Firdaus Kasman fired wide after a nice pass from Duric.
East Bengal were playing within themselves and became a little casual at the back with Duric having Tampines’ first effort on target as he produced a smart save off Abhijit Mondal.
Both coaches made some changes but significantly for Tampines, both Hadzibulic and Amri were on and the S-League club finally had some sustained pressure.
The equaliser came from a freekick, which was needlessly given away by East Bengal. Left back Shaiful Esah went for goal from 30 yards and it went past Abhijit.
Morgan’s frustration was understandable as wasteful finishing from his side allowed Tampines Rovers to draw level and the Singapore club could and should have been ahead when a long ball found Hadzibulic, who went pass Abhijit but his goalbound effort was cleared off the line by Raju Gaikwad.
Minutes later, East Bengal had the ball in the back of the net but it was rightfully disallowed and the Kolkata club rued a couple of more chances despite getting into good positions.
It looked like it wasn’t going to be East Bengal’s day until Ralte made up for his previous misses by finding the back of the net from 25 yards with a trademark curling effort from his left foot.
East Bengal held on for a deserved win but the poor finishing will surely be a concern for Trevor Morgan going into the final weeks of the season.
East Bengal 2 (Chidi 22, Ralte 86) Tampines Rovers (Shaiful Esah 69) 1
East Bengal: Abhijit Mondal; Harmanjot Singh Khabra, Gurwinder Singh, Raju Gaikwad, Saumik Dey; Sanju Pradhan (Cavin Lobo 81), Mehtab Hossain, Penn Orji, Lalrindika Ralte; Andrew Barisic (Edeh Chidi 14), Manandeep Singh (Baljit Sahni 67).
Tampines Rovers: Sasa Dreven; Anaz Hadee, Kunihiro Yamashita, Jufri Taha, Shaiful Esah; Imran Sahib, Fahruddin Mustafic (Khairul Amri 58), Shahdan Sulaiman, Jamil Ali (Sead Hadzibulic 66) , Firdaus Kasman (Martin Wagner 77); Aleksandar Duric.
