Al Shorta 3( Ahmed, Hussain, Kuku) East Bengal 2( David- 2)
Bibhash Lodh, BS News Agency: That's a story. Despite playing well, East Bengal loses. Despite going ahead twice against Iraq's Al Shorta in the AFC Champions League Tier Two match at Yuva Bharati on Tuesday, the red and yellow team worsened their position in the group ( 1 point in 2 matches). Despite going ahead by 2 goals against Al Hussain in the away match at Jordan's ground, the red and yellow brigade missed out on the victory by conceding 2 goals. East Bengal lost because they started well but later lost the game. East Bengal could not cure this disease. Al Shorta started badly but later recovered and won 3-2 to secure 6 points from 2 group matches.
In the first match of ACL 2, Al Shorta of Iraq defeated Al Seeb of Oman 1-0. There, East Bengal lost the opportunity to be in a favorable position in the group by taking a 2-goal lead against Al Hussein in Jordan, but later conceded 2 goals. When the red and yellow coach Antonio Lopez Habas spoke about taking advantage of the home field to pick up 3 points, Al Shorta coach Sami Trabelsi also had the confidence to improve his team's position in the group by winning the away match. Al Shorta's Sami finally achieved that goal by winning the match.
Habas has been in a bad mood since losing the Shield Final Derby. This has been reflected in his words time and again. He absolutely disliked the unfavorable conditions, schedule and playing on the field in the domestic competition. But for various reasons, he could not accept it from his heart even if he had to play him. Habas' favorite tournaments have always been the ACL and ISL. And so, after the Shield loss, Habas knew that he would choose to turn around the ACL 2 match against Al Shorta. In the interest of playing offensive football, Habas used Edmund and David together in the 4-4-2 formation at the beginning to put pressure on the opposing defense. On the other hand, to handle the pressure on his own defense, Habas placed Jackson and Rashid in a double defensive screen in front of Anwar and Zibulech at the stopper. Although Jackson's role was mainly defensive, Rashid was given additional freedom to handle the defense as well as attack.
In the 9th minute, East Bengal took the lead with a spectacular goal by David. Hardik Bhatt's pass turned Ramirez's foot on the edge of the box and came back to Hardik. He extended the ball to David in the middle of the box. David caught the ball between two Al Shorta defenders. Then, in a sudden half turn, David sent the ball past the Al Shorta World Cup goalkeeper's net with a knee-level shot with his left foot and into the net.
One thing is very important in football. After scoring a goal, one must keep emotions in check and jump for the next goal, or else keep concentration. Most of the time, it is seen that the team that is ahead makes bad mistakes by conceding goals due to loss of concentration. That is the case with East Bengal. In the 14th minute, when Ruben Ramirez's cross floated into the box, Ahmed took the head without any obstacles, and the ball dropped to the side of East Bengal goalkeeper Prabhusukhan and entered the goal.
After the goal, Sambit returned to the red and yellow brigade. The attack increased. In the 21st minute, Lalchungnunga suddenly took a strong shot from outside the box. Goalkeeper Jalal stopped the ball with his bare body and explained why he was in Iraq's World Cup team. However, the loose ball came to David in front. He could not take advantage of the opportunity. He took a weak shot and gave it to goalkeeper Jalal.
However, David did not make a mistake in pushing the ball into the goal in the 40th minute. He fouled David as he tried to get the ball past the opposing defender outside the box. The referee gave a free kick. Ramirez's free kick was partially blocked by goalkeeper Jalal, but the ball dropped to Rashid's feet. He put the ball in with a short tap, and David pushed it into the goal. At the end of the first half, David had two more sure-fire goals in front of him. Hardik's minus got the ball in the gap in front of the goal and fired it over the crossbar. Once again, David could not put the ball in the goal from the front. If he could, David would not only have scored a hat-trick, but he would have ensured the victory for East Bengal. Edmund's shot in the last minute of the added time was narrowly missed the target.
It is not known whether they returned to the dressing room with a 2-1 lead at the break and were complacent, but East Bengal paid the price for wasting the opportunity to go ahead by 4 goals in the first half. As the saying goes, big coaches are their cannons at the break. Only he knows what trick Sami, the coach of Iraq's Al-Shorta, used to motivate his footballers in the dressing room at the break. However, the strategy with which Sami got East Bengal into trouble was to replace Bassam Shakir, who could not attract attention in attack, with Argentine Cristian Barco.
East Bengal's defense was unsteady from the start of the second half due to Christian's attack. The cohesion was lost. Taking advantage of that opportunity, Hussein Al Saidi tapped Ahmed's pass and put the ball into the net to equalize for Al Shorta in the 51st minute. Before Al Shorta could organize themselves after the goal, Al Shorta struck again. In the 53rd minute, Kingsley Cook headed in Barko's corner and gave Al Shorta the lead.
In the 67th minute, East Bengal could have equalized immediately if Ramirez and Edmund had not failed to score in the gap between the box. East Bengal still had a chance to equalize when Al Shorta midfielder Abdul was shown a red card. In the 76th minute, Abdul Majeed saw a second yellow and red card for a foul.
However, East Bengal could not take the opportunity to reduce Al Shorta to 10 men. East Bengal held on for the rest of the game but could not break through Al Shorta's defense and score the goal to save the game. Despite playing well, East Bengal fans had to return home with regret for losing the match like this. It is painful.
East Bengal: Prabhusukhon, Hardik (Bipin), Zibulic, Anwar, Lalchungnunga, Joy, Jackson, Rashid, Ramirez (Loba), Edmund, David (Lucas).