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East Bengal 5 (Penn 2, Chidi, 25, 71, 76, Mehtab 47) Yangon United 1 (Cesar 78)
East Bengal: Abhijit Mondal; Naoba Singh, Arnab Mondal, Uga Okpara, Saumik Dey; Ishfaq Ahmed, Penn Orji, Mehtab Hossain, Lalrindika Ralte ((Sanju Pradhan 77); Edeh Chidi & Andrew Barisic
Yangon United: Naing Zayar Tun; Myo Win Htut (Thet Lwin Win 78), Michael Cvetkovski, Kyi Lin, Yaza Win Thein, Cesar Augusto, Khin Maung Lwin, Zarni Htet, Yan Aung Kyaw, Adama Kone, Aung Moe (Si Thu Aung 67)
East Bengal thumped Myanmar champions Yangon United 5-1 in an AFC Cup round of 16 clash to reach the quarterfinals for the first time since 2004. Edeh Chidi was in inspirational form as he netted a hattrick and set up the other goals which were scored by Mehtab Hossain and Penn Orji.
The red-and-gold brigade have now won all four of their home matches in the AFC Cup, scoring 12, and are still unbeaten in the competition. But tougher tests await them in the last eight, which won’t be played until September.
The notable team news for East Bengal was the inclusion of Abhijit Mondal in goal with Gurpreet Singh Sandhu dropping to the bench while Arnab Mondal also got a start in central defence with Chidi and Barisic in attack.
Yangon United were missing Ivory Coast central defender Gnonsian Oulou due to a double booking but had the foreign strike pairing of Ivorian Adama Kone and Brazilian Cesar Augusto and the highly rated Kyi Lin started on the left flank.
East Bengal’s home advantage and superior experience in the AFC Cup compared to Yangon United made them favourites and they got off to the best possible start. Chidi got away from a couple of defenders and put a low cross into the box from the right and his compatriot Penn connected to it with a superb first time shot.
It was Penn’s second goal in as many AFC Cup games and it calmed down any early nerves that East Bengal might have had.
Yangon looked comfortable on the ball and had a great chance to equalise when Kone got behind the East Bengal back four but his effort was way off target.
But that’s as good as it got for Yangon because for the rest of the half East Bengal were the only side that looked like scoring with Chidi terrorising the defence of the Myanmar club. On one occasion, the Nigerian’s power saw him go past three Yangon defenders but he couldn’t test the goalkeeper.
Lalrindika Ralte also wasted a great opening when Penn’s cutback found him inside the box but the Mizoram youngster’s goal-bound effort was blocked on the line. Despite winning their three previous home games in the AFC Cup, East Bengal were very wasteful in front of goal but on this day it didn’t take them long to find the second.
A lovely through ball from Penn saw Barisic beat the offside trap and go clean through on goal. Instead of shooting, the Australian chose to pass and it proved to be the right option as his cross was slotted into the back of the net by Chidi.
Despite the importance of the match, there was a very poor turnout at the Salt Lake Stadium and the atmosphere had been very flat until the second goal which saw the bursting of some firecrackers and it caught everybody by surprise with the game also being held off for a while.
Yangon United had a couple of chances from freekicks in the closing stages of the half with Cesar Augusto producing a save off Abhijit while Myo Win Htut couldn’t hit the target with a free header.
The Myanmar club had a mountain to climb and it got worse for them at the start of the second half as Mehtab tripled East Bengal’s advantage. Once again Chidi was the creator as he held off his marker and passed it to Mehtab who scored with a beautiful curling effort from 30 yards.
That goal clearly ended the game as a contest even though Yangon were putting in a lot of effort to come back into the match.
It took the Myanmar club almost 23 minutes to create their first real chance of the second half as Win Thein’s teasing cross nearly found Cesar.
But that opportunity brought East Bengal to life as two minutes later they found the fourth. Naoba Singh got free on the right flank and found Chidi with a low cross and the Nigerian had all the time and space to bag his second.
It didn’t take long for Chidi to complete his hattrick as another counter attack saw Penn send his compatriot clean through on goal and the striker finished with ease.
Yangon United were well and truly embarrassed but to their credit they pulled one back through Cesar after a great cross from the left. The Myanmar club could have scored from the restart as well but Kyi Lin’s effort narrowly missed the target.
Kone had scored in every match of the group stage and he could have ended the AFC Cup campaign with another strike but his effort was blocked on the line by Naoba.
