Durand Cup 2019 | East Bengal begin campaign with two-goal win over Army Red

SportsCafe Desk

BySportsCafe Desk, SportsCafe Editor

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East Bengal started off their Durand Cup campaign at home in a promising manner as they were on the front foot throughout before ultimately capitalizing on the chances. Army Red showed strong defensive resilience but their lines were ultimately broken by Jaime Santos Colado and Vidyasagar Singh.

East Bengal had a triumphant start to Indian football’s oldest tournament on Saturday at their home ground as they prevailed 2-0 over Army Red. The red and gold brigade’s coach Alejandro Menendez handed debuts to Abhijeet Sarkar and Boithang Haokip, going with a total of two foreigners in his starting XI. Borja Gomez Perez was played as a part of the central defensive duo while Jaime Santos Colado played as a striker.

East Bengal were all over their opponents right from the start and did not let Army Red settle for even an instant. They kept attacking the goal in waves and almost scored on numerous occasions, only for the goal frame and lastditch clearances to deny them. In the 25th minute, Colado’s swerving freekick almost broke the deadlock only for the ball to hit the post before Haokip’s shot off the rebound was cleared from the goal line. The latter hit the crossbar just five minutes later.

With scores level at half time, Army Red adopted a more defensive approach when play resumed, quickly turning the game into a boring affair. However, the introductions of Pintu Mahata and Kassim Aidara meant renewed energy for East Bengal, before a third substitution in the form of Vidyasagar Singh for Haokip turned out to be more critical. 

The striker, coming on in the 79th minute, beat the keeper Mohamamd Shanoos in a one on one but was brought down by him just outside the box. Shanoos was shown a red card and this time Santos’ attempt from the dead ball curled around the wall and found the back of the net in the 84th minute. In injury time, East Bengal doubled their advantage as Singh had to just tap it in from Samad Ali Mallick’s brilliant cross from the right-wing.

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