By Abhishek Roy, IANS
Ludhiana : East Bengal came from behind to beat defending champions and archrivals Mohun Bagan 3-2 in a pulsating semi-final of the 29th Federation Cup football tournament at the Guru Nanak Stadium here Tuesday.
Goals from defender Surkumar Singh, substitute Dipendu Biswas and Ashim Biswas helped East Bengal to stay alive in the title hunt. Credit should also be given to goalkeeper Subrata Paul, whose valiant act under the bar gave the 1996 champions a chance to end a long title draught.
For the defending champions, captain Bhaichung Bhutia and Brazilian forward Jose Ramires Barreto were on target but their efforts were not enough to save the day for Mohun Bagan.
With the 3-2 win, the red-and-gold brigade took the sweet revenge of their 3-4 loss to Mohun Bagan in the Kolkata league last month.
The win also came as a big relief for East Bengal coach Subrata Bhattacharya, who spent his entire playing career of 17 years as a Mohun Bagan defender and raised eyebrows when he decided earlier this year to coach the archrivals. He failed in his first big assignment in the Kolkata league but had the last laugh Tuesday.
The defending champions took the lead in the 12th minute from a Bhutia strike. The ever opportunist Bhutia chipped in off a rebound to draw the first blood after Barreto’s shot was thwarted by East Bengal goalie Subrata Paul.
A flurry of attacks from the Bhutia-Barreto combination left the East Bengal defence completely rattled. Seeking desperate measure, East Bengal coach Bhattacharya made his first substitution by bringing in striker Dipendu Biswas in place of midfielder Debabrata Roy. The substitution proved to be a masterstroke as Dipendu struck once and also contributed in the other two goals.
Dipendu set-up Surkumar with a clever pass on the right flank and the defender raced into the box and stabbed in with a right-footer to draw parity.
Ten minutes later Dipendu was again on target to break the deadlock from a back-pass by midfielder Rahim Nabi. The midfielder, who was operating on the left flank played exceptionally well all through the 90 minutes and cleverly set-up Dipendu as East Bengal took the lead.
Mohun Bagan came close to scoring on a few occasions but Paul, who also had a fine run in India’s recent triumph in the Nehru Cup, thwarted a good three clear attempts.
East Bengal increased the lead just after the break as Ashim slotted it in from Dipendu’s pass. Dipendu made a solo run and raced into the Mohun Bagan defence and gave a pinpoint pass to Ashim, who dribbled past Peter Odafe to slot it in.
Things were going fine for East Bengal till the 70th minute but a Barreto strike in the next minute almost changed the complexion of the game. After being fed by a precise pass from substitute Lal Kamal Bhowmick, the Brazilian didn’t waste time and stabbed in with his scorching right footer to reduce the margin. Two minutes later, Mohun Bagan were unlucky in finding an equaliser as Bhutia’s goal was turned down due to his being offside.
TEAMS:
East Bengal: Subrata Paul (goalkeeper), Majekodnumi Bolaji, M. Suresh,
Surkumar Singh, Saumik Dey, Rahim Nabi, Mehrajuddin Wadoo (Abdul Samed, 85), Jayanta Sen, Debabrata Roy (Dipendu Biswas,
16), Ashim Biswas, Alvito D’Cunha
Mohun Bagan: Sangram Mukherjee (goalkeeper), Habibur Mondal, Sanjeev
Maria, Peter Odafe, Rauf Khan (P.C. Lalawmpuia, 55), L. James Singh,
Suman Dutta (Lalkamal Bhowmick, 43), Mohammed Gafari, Dharamjit Singh,
Bhaichung Bhutia, Jose Ramires Barreto
Referee: K.Shankar (Tamil Nadu)