I-League 2018-19: Real Kashmir 1-2 East Bengal – Esqueda, Santos keep East Bengal in title race, at least for a day

#1 Dreadful performance in the 2nd half could’ve brought danger for East Bengal

East Bengal struggled in the 2nd half

It was a game for of two halves for East Bengal. To keep them in the title race at least for a day, they had to win the match. The red and golds eventually achieved it only after going through some nervous moments.

East Bengal’s produced a dominant performance in the first half. They never gave an inch to their opponents and every move could’ve easily turned into a goal. Their possession was brilliant and used the wing-play intelligently. Both the goals in this half were the production of their swift passes.

Probably being over confident with the result, the second half started badly for East Bengal. Ritwik Kumar Das, who came on as a substitute in the 2nd half, started creating problems in the East Bengal defence. Farhan Ganie was introduced soon after which allowed Mason to operate more freely. Suddenly Real Kashmir got an upper hand in the game, despite playing with a man less.

East Bengal made too many mispasses. There was no real movement and they lost their grip in the midfield. Rakshit Dagar made a blunder by fouling Bazie Armand inside the box. On two occasions, East Bengal could’ve conceded. Firstly, Borja made a mistake but Ritwik couldn’t inflict any damage. Then Mason’s shot went just wide after intercepting a poor back pass of Aidara.

There was no sharpness in East Bengal’s game and rather than creating chances, they concentrated more on the ball, which brought danger quite a few times.