I-League: East Bengal breeze past Mohammedan Sporting, keep title challenge alive

East Bengal Club recorded a 3-1 victory over Mohammedan Sporting Club in a round 24 encounter of the I-League at the Saltlake Stadium in Kolkata on Saturday evening.

Ryuji Sueoka gave the red-and-gold brigade an early lead while Joaquim Abranches doubled their advantage. Josimar pulled one back immediately after the second East Bengal goal but a landmark second-half strike from Edeh Chidi sealed the points for East Bengal.

Armando Colaco’s side have won back-to-back games for the first time in this season’s I-League and it sees them move within four points of table toppers Bengaluru FC with a game in hand. Mohammedan Sporting remain rock-bottom and have only three more games to avoid relegation.

It was an even contest in the opening stages with both sides cancelling each other out but East Bengal broke the deadlock with their first real attack. Young Abhishek Das produced a fine overlapping run on the right flank before finding Sueoka inside the box and the Japanese scored with a first-time shot. Mohammedan Sporting struggled to create openings in the first quarter of the game and thus Sanjoy Sen replaced Monirul Mondal with Jerry Zirsanga. That change gave pace to Mohammedan Sporting’s right flank and they started creating more chances.

Japanese Taro Hasegawa had Mohammedan Sporting’s first shot on target as his right-footer had to be saved by Abhra Mondal. The East Bengal custodian was called into action again when Josimar headed Zirsanga’s corner towards the goal with Ajay Singh’s effort from the rebound being cleared off the line. Mohammedan Sporting were enjoying their best spell of the first half but East Bengal doubled their advantage when a misunderstanding between goalkeeper Luis Barreto and defender Syed Rahim Nabi allowing Abranches to pounce onto the loose ball and find the back of an empty net.

East Bengal’s two-goal advantage only lasted for a minute though as Josimar headed home Nirmal Chettri’s cross with Abhra failing to get to the ball after coming way out of his line. The half ended with end-to-end action and East Bengal wasted a couple of chances with Sueoka almost getting on the end of a Chidi flick-on while Lalrindika Ralte couldn’t hit the target after being well set up by Chidi.

Mohammedan Sporting saw plenty of the ball in the second half but their final pass was lacking quality with Josimar only testing Abhra after a solo run. East Bengal didn’t really threaten to score but after the hour-mark they regained their two-goal lead through Chidi. The goal came in bizarre fashion as Robert Lalthlamuana played a through ball for Sueoka, who was offside, which saw the Mohammedan Sporting players stop and wait for the flag. But Sueoka didn’t touch the ball and allowed an onrushing Chidi, who was onside, to score easily past Barreto.

It was Chidi’s 100th goal in the National Football League and I-League, and the Nigerian became only the fifth player to reach that milestone.

At 1-3 down, Mohammedan Sporting had a mountain to climb and besides a shot from Josimar that was saved by Abhra, they didn’t create any other clear cut opportunity.