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East Bengal’s four-match unbeaten run finally ended with a heart-breaking loss against Chennai City. The I-League leaders made a great comeback in the second half to win the match 2-1 at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Coimbatore on Monday.
It was a ‘double’ by Chennai City, who also won their away match at Kolkata against East Bengal. With 27 points from 12 matches, Chennai City are well and truly on their way to lift the title. They are five points ahead of the second-placed Churchill Brothers.
The match was crucial for East Bengal as a win could’ve made them a strong contender for I-League. They started brilliantly and got the lead as early as ninth minute, thanks to a fine header by Laldanmawia Ralte, who got his fourth goal of the campaign. Joby Justin then missed a golden chance to double the lead.
Chennai City came with a different approach in the second half and Pedro Manzi got his 11th goal of the campaign when he deflected a shot from Alexander Romario Jesuraj. Romario got his name on his name on the scoresheet in the 70th minute when his weak shot somehow entered the goal.
Let us look at the three reasons why East Bengal went down against Chennai City:
#3 Keeping patience and tactical switch worked wonders for Chennai City
The last time when Chennai City defeated East Bengal in their opening match, they had made a short work of their opponents. East Bengal were still struggling to get their foot in the league and had not even all players settled.
Monday’s encounter was different, given the fact that the Red and Golds had all their foreigners in place, who were looking comfortable. In that scenario, Chennai opted for the wait and watch policy.
Even after conceding an early, not a single Chennai player panicked. They kept looking for their chances. Their motto was to keep things simple and let the goals come eventually.
Chennai coach Akbar Nawas has done a commendable job by instilling confidence among the Indian players. The likes of Edwin Vanspaul and Gourav Bora are now more matured.
But the transformation of the local players is astonishing. Pravitto Raju, Alexander Jesuraj, Ajithkumar Kamaraj do not fear to face bigger opponents anymore. Their performance is an added boost for the side.
Romario, who likes to play from the right flank, was shifted into middle and Raju took his place. It worked wonders as Romario was involved in both the goals. Also, his pace created danger in East Bengal defence.
#2 East Bengal defence falters yet again
East Bengal have been successful in keeping the Chennai City trio – Nestor Gordillo, Sandro Rodriguez and Pedro Manzi – quiet in the first half. Even though an inexperienced Samad Ali Mullick was given the responsibility to block Gordillo, he did the job well.
Central defenders Johnny Acosta and Borja Gomez had one job to do - never allow Manzi an inch of space to play and block him from getting the passes from Gordillo. In the first half, Manzi was invisible in the field.
It was defensive lapse by Borja, which allowed Manzi to score. While blocking Romario’s shot, Borja forgot to mark Manzi and the Spanish striker calmly took the opportunity to score. Samad was behind him but failed to do anything.
The second goal of Chennai came through a schoolboy mistake from left-back Manoj Mohammed. While clearing a ball, Manoj missed the trajectory completely. Raju quickly got the control of the ball and squared it to Romario.
Romario’s shot was weak but it was enough to beat Rakshit Dagar, who could’ve tried to keep it away and instead of haplessly looking at the ball.
#1 East Bengal badly missed a second striker
Since Enrique Esqueda broke his rib and departed for Spain, East Bengal badly missed a striker who could hold the ball and try to create space to score.
After the Mexican departed, Joby Justin played as a lone striker and the Keralite found the back of the net regularly. Apart from him, Laldanmawia Ralte came in handy for East Bengal and has scored four times after returning from injury.
But that is not a solution. East Bengal struggled to score whenever Joby was heavily marked by opponent defenders, as was the case against Chennai City. All the passes or crosses that went Joby's way were easily kept away by either Roberto Eslava or Gourav Bora.
Nowadays, all the top teams around the world play with a lone striker. But they do have the support of quality attacking midfielders. Even though East Bengal have Toni Dovale and Jaime Santos, both of them failed to make their mark against Chennai.
This is because the Chennai defenders gave them no space to pass. The channel was narrowed down and both the Spaniards of East Bengal failed to make an impact.
This only led to EB losing the game and handing Chennai City a golden opportunity to win the I-League.
