Dudu Omagbemi scored a brace to fashion Kingfisher East Bengal’s victory against Royal Wahingdoh FC in the Hero I-League football at the Vidyasagar Stadium in Barasat on Sunday.
The eighth win helped East Bengal reach 29 points from 19 games. It drew five games. East Bengal will take on Shillong Lajong FC in the final encounter where a victory will help it finish the league in third place ahead of Wahingdoh which concluded its campaign logging 30 points.
It was another hot and humid day with the temperature hovering around 37 degree C. Despite the extreme conditions, the teams put up a good show. Both the team’s defence played strongly confining the action to midfield in the first half. As the half was about to end came East Bengal’s first goal.
A minute into added time, Ranty Martins ran down the right and floated a lovely cross over the Wahingdoh custodian Prem Kumar Singh.
Dudu, running between the two stoppers, pounced on the opening to push the ball home.
The opportunistic goal galvanised East Bengal as it strove hard to break down the rival defence.
It took another 20 minutes to get the insurance goal, again through Dudu.
Player of the match, Mehtab Hussain produced a defence splitting diagonal through-ball to Dudu on the right and the burly striker out-sprinted his marker and drove the ball straight to goalkeeper Prem Kumar.
The latter blocked the attempt and the loose ball luckily fell close to Dudu who did not make a mistake with his second attempt.
The visitors too came close to scoring twice but Luis Barreto, under the East Bengal bar, brought off fine saves.
As the match drew to a close, Wahingdoh skipper — Trinidadian Denzil Theobald — and East Bengal’s Shylo Malsawmtluanga were sent off for hitting each other. The latter will miss East Bengal’s final game.
