Pictures by Bibhash Lodh, BS News Agency.
East Bengal 7 ( David- 3, Economides, Rohit, Loba, Lucas) North East 2 ( Aladin- 2)
Bibhash Lodh, BS News Agency: East Bengal lost to Punjab FC at home in the last match of the group league. The loss hurt the East Bengal fans as much as it hurt the Durand-winning red and yellow coach Antonio Lopez Habas and his footballers more than it hurt the casteism.
As the saying goes, the tigers and East Bengal are very scary. The loss to Punjab made the East Bengal brigade furious. North East United was burnt to ashes in the second semi-final of the Shield. East Bengal reached the Shield final by crushing North East 7-2 at Kishore Bharati, courtesy of David's hat-trick, Rohit Kumar, Economides, Rohit Kumar, Lobar's goals. The opponent in the final is Mohun Bagan Super Giant. After losing awkwardly to East Bengal in the Durand final, Mohun Bagan SGK kept the form of the red and yellow footballers in mind before the Shield final. The Shield final is on Thursday at Yuva Bharati on October 8.
Mohun Bagan brigade has dried up the goal streak after winning the first match against Srinidhi Deccan in the first match of the Shield. On Sunday, Kalgham ran out of time to win against Punjab FC in the first semi-final of the Shield. The match was won in a tiebreaker. And there, after falling behind after 2 minutes due to Aladin Azhar's goal, they continued to score goals for the rest of the match and crushed North East 7-2, advancing to the Shield final and throwing a tough challenge at Mohun Bagan. Even though David was illegally tackled in the 29th minute, referee Surjit Das did not award a penalty to East Bengal. If he had, another goal from the penalty would have increased the margin of victory for the red and yellow team.
East Bengal coach Habas was unhappy with the loss against Punjab FC, which was clear from the team fielded by the East Bengal coach in the North East match. In that match, the midfield did not form as Jackson and Ramirez did not play from the start. The face of the torch team's game changed completely as soon as they played. Perhaps the East Bengal footballers took time to organize themselves at the beginning. In that opportunity, in the 2nd minute, Aladdin scored a goal after a misunderstanding between Zibulic and goalkeeper Furba Lepcher. After the first goal, North East played very hard for the second goal. But Aladdin's amazing lamp lit up and went out 10 minutes into the game.
After that, the goal was just a red and yellow storm throughout the match. It would not be wrong to call it a tsunami of goals. In the 12th minute, East Bengal regained parity with a spectacular goal by David's header from Economides' cross. In the 24th minute, Rohit Kumar's right-footed shot from Ramirez's center made it 2-1. North East then completely lost the game. The red and yellow footballers increased the number of goals by launching one attack after another. In the 28th minute, Ramirez's goal attempt was saved by Tandonba from the goal line. East Bengal got a penalty in the next minute. The referee did not give it. In the 43rd minute, Economides scored a goal from Vishnu to make it 3-1.
The flood of goals did not stop even after the break. In the 46th minute, David's second goal from Vishnu's pass and in the 56th minute, David's hat-trick goal made East Bengal go 5-1 ahead. When Aladin scored against the pace of the game, the gap became 2-5 in favor of North East. In the 85th minute, Loba announced his arrival with a goal (6-2). The Ivory Coast footballer came on in place of Economides. In the 91st minute, Lukas Zolinski's goal completed East Bengal's 7-2 win.
East Bengal: Phurba, Hardik (Asif), Zibulic (Rashid), Lalchungnunga, Sandeep, Rohit Kumar, Jackson, Ramirez (Rohit Danu), Vishnu, Economides (Loba), David (Lucas).