East Bengal lost to Bengaluru, the red and yellow dreams of the playoffs are alive after rising to six.
East Bengal kept their playoff dream alive by defeating Bengaluru FC at home. Red-Yellow won 2-1 on Sunday. Saul Crespo and Clayton Silva scored.
East Bengal 2 (Saul-Penalty, Clayton)
Bengaluru 1 (Sunil-penalty)
East Bengal kept their playoff dream alive by defeating Bengaluru FC at home. Red-Yellow won 2-1 on Sunday. Saul Crespo and Clayton Silva scored. Sunil Chhetri scored the only goal for Bengaluru. As a result of the victory, East Bengal rose to sixth in the points table with 24 points in 21 matches. Next match is against Punjab FC. If they win that, the playoffs will be confirmed for them. Punjab have already been knocked out of the play-off race. Also, East Bengal won two consecutive matches for the first time in ISL history.
From the beginning, the game was going on in the middle of the two teams. Neither team could create a telling chance. An opportunity had come to Shiva Shakti in Bengaluru. He fell into the offside trap. The first good opportunity came near Bangalore. A cross came to Fanai on the right side of the box. He gave pass to Shiva Shakti. The Bengaluru footballer went on to tap the ball into the net. But it hit the head of East Bengal goalkeeper Prabhsukhan and it went out. East Bengal narrowly escaped scoring.
A few minutes later Red-Yellow went ahead. Fanai fouled Naurem Mahesh inside the Bengaluru box. The referee gave a penalty. Crespo gave East Bengal the lead from the penalty. East Bengal could have scored a few moments later. Hijaji Maher passes the ball to Bengaluru Drost. But East Bengal survived that journey courtesy of Shovik Chakraborty.
After the attack of East Bengal for some time in the match, Bengaluru launched a continuous attack again. East Bengal increased the pressure again in the moments before the break. Crespo passes to Vishnu. He passed to Clayton. Bengaluru goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu came forward after leaving the goal. Seeing that, Clayton passed Vishnu again. But the East Bengal footballer could not hold the ball.
After the break, Vishnu was picked up by Quadrat. Naman Sion Banerjee. Bangalore started attacking from the start. They equalized in 60 minutes. Sunil’s cross goes to Harmanjot Khabra. The referee immediately gave a penalty. Sunil equalized from there. Prabhsukhan did not reach the ball even if he jumped in the right direction. In the next minute, Bengaluru applied for a penalty again. This time too, Khabra was asked to put the ball in his hands. The referee didn’t care.
In the past, East Bengal have had a tendency to lose points even after progressing. But they did not want to waste any chance in the life-death match. Despite conceding a goal, continued a continuous attack and reaped the benefits. Clayton gave East Bengal the lead in the 73rd minute. Nishu Kumar got the ball on the left. He extended the perfect pass to Clayton in the box. Clayton led East Bengal with a header.
As the game progressed, Bengaluru’s pressure increased. The red and yellow supporters of 1000 and 300 in the field have started to think, won’t the tide sink again when it comes to the shore? Tension also started between the players of the two teams on the field. Coaches of both teams see yellow cards. Prabhsukhan was also shown a yellow card for time wasting. He will not be able to play in the Punjab match. But the chance that Amon CK missed in the last minute of the match was unbelievable.
Felicio Brown received the ball from midfield and passed to Amon. Aman got an empty goal past goalkeeper Gurpreet. But he pulls the ball inward so much that it goes too far. Even after that, there was an empty goal in front. Slipped just as he was about to shoot. Gurpreet saved his shot after standing up.
