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East Bengal overcame Kerala Blasters’ challenge to register a 1-0 win at the Salt Lake Stadium on Friday (February 3).
The Blasters started strong, looking to carve their opponents open. Rahul KP had two excellent chances to open the scoring, the first coming from a corner, where he arrived late into the box. He then fired a shot inside the box that blazed over the bar.
After a period of sustained pressure, the game became cagey with the midfield getting heavily contested. The away side dominated possession and looked threatening, with Dimitrios Diamantakos’ movement posing trouble for East Bengal’s defense.
Their best chances, however, came from set pieces, with Victor Mongil and Adrian Luna testing the keeper from corners. Towards the end of the half, the Red and Gold Brigade shifted gears, with Suhair VP putting the ball into the net. But his goal was chalked out as he was deemed to be in an offside position.
Just a couple of minutes after the offside call, Karanjit Singh expertly bailed out the Blasters twice from Cleiton Silva’s efforts. The deadlock was yet to be broken in a tightly contested first half.
East Bengal secure all three points in second half
East Bengal continued where they left off in the first half. Cleiton Silva was once again at the heart of it as he pounced on Hormipam’s poor touch in the box, but he once again failed to convert it.
Kerala Blasters then had their best chance of the game when Rahul KP’s low cross found Apostolos Giannou. However, Kamaljit Singh was well positioned to deny him.
Similar to the first half, the battle in midfield was feisty. Both sides were compact defensively and waited for the other to make mistakes. However, the Red and Gold Brigade broke the deadlock when they took the lead in the 77th minute through Silva.
Nishu Kumar failed to clear his lines, allowing Mahesh to seize the opportunity and charge forward. Silva then put the ball into the net from close range after a couple of deflections. With just ten minutes left, the Blasters pushed forward for an equalizer, but East Bengal were solid defensively and secured their second win at home this season.
The result left Kerala Blasters in a spot of bother as they failed to close the gap on Hyderabad FC in second place. They remain third with 28 points to their name, but ATK Mohun Bagan could climb past them with a victory against Bengaluru FC on Sunday (February 5).
On the other end, it was undoubtedly jubilation for the Red and Gold Brigade as they fought their way to an unprecedented victory. Although their playoff hopes are arguably over, the three points will prove to be a huge boost in confidence for Stephen Constantine's men.
