I-League: East Bengal held by Chirag

New Delhi: East Bengal failed to win for the fourth consecutive match in the I-League as they were held by fellow Kolkata club Chirag United at the Salt Lake Stadium on Saturday.

First Half

The match commenced with Chirag United coming out of the blocks first, with Hardeep Singh hitting a long shot in the second minute that blazed over the East Bengal crossbar.

Moments later Singh was again in the thick of the action as his pass to Subhash Singh on the left was shot wide and failed to bother EB custodian Subrata Paul.

But East Bengal soon came out of their shell and exhibited some good inter-passing football. But it wasn't concrete and allowed Chirag to hit back although their intensity wasn't better than that of Bengal's.

The first decent chance of the game came on the first quarter of the match when a sharply chiseled cross from Saumik Dey from the left threaded its way to Sunil Chhetri's head. But unfortunately for East Bengal, the Indian international striker failed to direct it home.

The match went into a less than entertaining phase after that as neither side could impress themselves upon the other, with half-chances and vague attempts becoming the norm.

The match though became lively in the last ten minutes of the first-half. East Bengal's Yusuf Yakubu made a half-hearted attempt from the left edge of the Chirag penalty area in the 35th minute but his shot sailed harmlessly over the bar.

Chirag immediately hit back as a pass from Denson Devadas was hit over the bar by Sankar Oraon with only the goalkeeper to beat. EB immediately created their own chance when winger Sanju Pradhan hit the side-net of the Chirag goal. He then dribbled past a host of Chirag players only to lose the ball just in front of the penalty box.

Chirag though had the best chance of the match towards the end of the first-half. Hardeep Singh was the instigator of the move when he gave the ball to Gouranga Dutta on the right.

Dutta then hit a lovely cross that the East Bengal defence in general and Nirmal Chhetri in particular failed to read. The beneficiary was Chirag striker Sankar Oraon, who with only Paul to beat, hit the ball wide off the mark to waste what should have been a rather easy goal.

Chirag finished the stronger of the two sides in the first half as Oraon again went close but since he had apparently kept his boots in the freezer overnight, he couldn't shoot the ball properly.

Second Half

East Bengal started the second half the better of the two sides. Two minutes into the restart and Syed Rahim Nabi had a weak low shot drifting wide off the far post.

Two minutes later Sunil Chhetri received the ball with acres of space to exploit and took a venomous shot from 20 yards out, only for the ball to rattle the crossbar. This was the soon-to-depart-to-Coventry-City-for-trial striker's first attempt at goal since his header in the first-half.

Chirag were firmly on the back-seat by this time and the only occasion that they managed to come out came in the 13th minute when Sankar Oraon had a powerful shot deflected off for a corner, from which the hosts could do nothing.

Two minutes later Chhetri provided an inviting pass to Mehtab Hossain only for the latter to miscue the ball in what was a virtually open goal with only goalkeeper Somnath Khara to beat.

Sunil was again in the thick of things in the 63th minute when his powerful shot was fended off by Khara.

Chirag again got a glorious chance in the 75th minute when Sankar Oraon received a great pass from Gourango Dutta near the six-yard box of East Bengal but as he had done throughout the match he hit the ball wide.

East Bengal then gained control of the ball and in order to garner the full three points came out heavily in attack. They went quite close but somehow the ball failed to thread into the back of the Chirag net, as in injury time of the match the ball even hit the post during a corner amidst a cluster of bodies.

In the end Chirag held on for a vital point while EB continue to struggle in the mid table.

Final Score: 0-0

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