East Bengal rallies to hold Zee Churchill

MARGAO, FEB. 3. In a fast paced keenly contested match, East Bengal came back from behind to hold Zee Churchill to a one-all draw in the fifth edition of the National Football League here today.

Zee Churchill, which took time to settle down, drew first blood in the 36th minute through defender Rajesh Meetei.

Medio Andre Requena, from the right, send a diagonal pass to unmarked Rajesh Meetei who controlled the ball and seeing the keeper Akhtar guarding the right post took a 20-yard shot to far end of the net to keeper Nasim Akhtar's left, to have Zee Churchill leading 1-0 at half time.

East Bengal, which missed two close chances in the first half, restored parity soon after resumption through striker Omolaja Olalekan in the 51st minute.

Following a flagkick on the right, Isiaka Awoyemi floated the ball into the goalmouth for substitute Sreekanta Dutta whose bicycle kick was deflected by keeper Edward Ansah and the ball came to Molaja who made no mistake in slotting home from close.

With this draw, East Bengal now has seven points from four matches. Zee Churchill, which is yet to win, has two points from as many matches.

Referee Dinesh Nair of Gujarat showed yellow cards to Zee Churchill's Mahesh Gowali and Andre Requena and East Bengal's Isiaka Awoyemi.

Both the teams matched each other well with East Bengal going offensive. It controlled the midfield for the first quarter of the match with Dipankar Roy on the left, repeatedly threatening the rival citadel, could have given his team the lead but his try was saved on the goalline by defender Rajesh Meetei.

Zee Churchill slowly settled down and took over the control in the midfield with Rocky and Noel Wilson combining to spell danger with quick counter moves. They could have taken lead in the 28th minute with Rocky, working tirelessly on the right, send a pass to Edson Crasto who missed narrowly.

East Bengal made a counter move and nearly equalised in the dying minutes of the first half when substitute Chandan Das who came in place of Bijen Singh worked his way on the right and send a cross into the box for Dipendu Biswas whose low header missed the target narrowly.

After change of ends, East Bengal bought in Sreekanta Dutta in place of Dipendu Biswas and dictated terms in the midfield and kept on probing into the rival half. It came close in taking the lead midway into the second half but keeper Edward Ansh charged out in time to foil Isiaka Awoyemi off a pass from Chandan Das.

Churchill, which was on the defensive, brought in Ajay Kumar in place of injured Noel Wilson midway into the second half. This changed the complexion of the game as Churchill threatened the rival half in the last quarter of the match and had two scoring chances but Jose Colaco and Edson failed to capitalise.

Zee Churchill Bros' keeper came to his team's rescue midway in the second half when Omolaja on the left put Dipankar Roy through who cut past defender Osumanu and took a shot at the goal but it was saved by keeper Ansah.

Zee Churchill coach Shivdas said ``we had a certain plan but it did not work especially in the second half and the injury to key players defender Osumanu Husseni and medio Noel Wilson has hampered our team performance.''

``The strikers let us down and this was the major concern in the last three matches,'' he said. ``If they had converted the last two close chances in the dying minutes, we would have walked away with full points,'' he said.

On the other hand, East Bengal coach Monoranjan Bhattacharya said their boys played well but failed to capture the chances that came their way.

Tomorrow, Salgaocar takes on Manaksia Tollygunge Agragami.

- PTI

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