E Bengal hold Sporting Clube
E Bengal…1 Sporting…1
PTI
KOLKATA, APRIL 30
East Bengal wasted opportunities galore as bottom-rung Sporting Clube de Goa held the local side 1-1 in their round 23 I-League match at Yuba Bharati Krirangan here on Friday.
Sporting Clube de Goa drew first blood through a Joseph Pereira goal in the 12th minute while Syed Rahim Nabi scored the equaliser in the 40th minute.
East Bengal now have 25 points from 21 matches, while Sporting Clube collected 21 from 23 matches.
Without their star striker Bhaichung Bhutia, East Bengal missed at least a dozen chances even as the home side dominated the proceedings right from the start in a match that saw the return of captain Rahim Nabi and Yusif Yakubu after an injury lay-off.
Abel Hammond and Yusif Yakubu lacked the spark upfront as Sporting Clube went 1-0 up with Pereira scoring from a through pass in what appeared to be a defensive lapse by Saumik Dey.
East Bengal kept on attacking but they lacked the spark as they remained goalless in front of a sparse home crowd.
The local giants, however, breathed a sigh of relief when Nabi finally found the back of the net to score the equaliser.
After the changeover, East Bengal brought in Sanju Pradhan and Alvito D’Cunha to mount pressure but there was no change in the script even as they had better share of chances.
Felix was adjudged Man-of-the-Match.
Yesterday, JCT edged past Air India by a solitary goal. The winning goal came from the boots of Emmanuel Okoro whose inclusion in JCT has changed their fortunes.
