Abinash Ruidas made his debut year in I-League memorable scoring the only goal that helped East Bengal upstage defending champion Bengaluru FC 1-0 in a third-round encounter here at the Salt Lake Stadium on Wednesday.
Ruidas, from the Mohun Bagan-SAIL academy, showed the right sense of opportunism to score a spectacular goal.
The visitors displayed good attacking football in the first session. Bengaluru FC’s approach reflected the discipline and good organisation instilled by its English coach Ashley Westwood.
The dominance could have translated into a lead as early as in the 15th minute had the crosspiece not prevented a Joshua Walker attempt from going home. The Middlesbrough youth academy product curved the ball from just outside the box to beat an off-position Subhasish Roy Chowdhury in the East Bengal goal.
But the ball came off the framework to deny the visitor a goal. The next time BFC was denied by Subhasish in the 24th minute. The East Bengal custodian dived to his left to parry a cracking effort from Walker’s midfield colleague Eugeneson Lyngdoh.
East Bengal continued to reel under persistent raids from the visitor, which dominated the midfield and created chances at will.
The proficiency showed by its midfield and defence was starkly absent in the attack-line – consisting the likes of Sunil Chetri, Robin Singh and Sean Rooney – which seemed to suffer from unwarranted cramps once inside the striking zone.
East Bengal attacked with more gusto after the change of ends and made the most this advantage finding the target in the 53rd minute.
Ruidas finished a series of precision passing after New Zealand striker Leo Bertos intercepted a Bengaluru build-up and initiated a counter-move.
This was the second straight loss for Bengaluru.
The result: East Bengal 1 (Abinash Ruidas 53) bt Bengaluru FC 0.