I-League 2017: East Bengal 1-1 Aizawl FC: 5 Talking Points

East Bengal scored a late goal to secure a point (Image Courtesy: Offical East Bengal Facebook)

East Bengal kicked off their I-League campaign in disappointing fashion yesterday as they drew 1-1 to a resolute Aizawl FC side at the Barasat stadium. The Bengal giants, who come into this season as one of the favourites to win the title, looked unsettled and disjointed from the start and were overrun in the midfield in the first half.

In the second half, things did not improve and a rather fortuitous own goal from Gurwinder Singh handed the away team a well-deserved lead. Despite going down, the home side looked lethargic and could not fashion proper attacking moves, until Willis Plaza came on.

After that, the Bengal giants looked a bit lively and finally equalised thanks to a brilliant Ivan Bukenya header in the 89^th minute. Aizawl coach Khalid Jamil blamed his defence for failing to mark Bukenya while East Bengal coach Trevor James Morgan thanked the stars for managing to garner a point somehow.

Here are the 5 things we learnt from the game:

#1 East Bengal need Arnab Mondal back as soon as possible

Thanks to the strains of the ISL and a missing physio, East Bengal missed the services of Arnab Mondal at the back yesterday. Gurwinder Singh was paired with Anwar Ali, and while the latter had a decent game, the former had a stinker.

He was caught out by the Aizawl forwards on numerous occasions, and eventually had to be substituted after he ended up hitting the back of his own net while clearing the ball. It was widely acknowledged that Arnab’s absence would be a problem, but no one had guessed it would be this big a problem.

Morgan will be hoping that his star defender can return to match fitness before the next game week.