Kingfisher East Bengal (KEB) paid dearly for profligacy against Mumbai Football Club (MFC) in the 16th round ONGC I-League match losing it 1-2 at the Salt Lake Stadium, here on Sunday.
Fresh from its 4-4 draw against Chonburi FC of Thailand in an AFC Cup league match a few days back, KEB missed the services of four frontline players — Orji Penn, Tolgay Ozbey, Uga Okpara and Mehtab Hossain — owing to suspension and their replacements in the team were simply not good enough.
Despite this, KEB did well to see the ball more, launch more raids and obviously had more scoring opportunities. Robin Singh, who was expected to deliver the goods, failed miserably a number of times.
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MFC came into the attack more on counters and its two foreign recruits, Hendry Ezeh and Ebi Sukhore, opened up a 2-0 lead which the visitor managed to hold on to till the final whistle though KEB pulled one back in the injury time through Biswarup Dey.
Brilliant strike
The Mumbai outfit's first strike was a brilliant one. Against the run of play, Hendry outran two KEB defenders and drilled a right-footed volley from outside the penalty box. The ball swerved and lodged into the right corner of the net giving no chance to the KEB goalkeeper Sandip Nandi.
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The 10th-minute strike was followed by another 15 minutes later. This time Hendry set up the goal with a nice pass to Sukhore, whose right-footed low shot went in to the left of Nandi.
KEB fought back to regain the initiative and Robin was presented with the best scoring chance just before the breather, but the lanky striker allowed the MFC goal-tender Ishant Debnath to deflect the ball away.
The home side was presented with more scoring opportunities in the later half, but everything was wasted. Either the MFC defence cleared the ball or the goalkeeper ensured the ball was kept away from the goal.
The Mumbai side too had its share of openings in the second half, especially with the KEB back four unable to plug the gaps. Goalie Nandi stood the test well by bringing off a few good saves.
The reducer came after Debnath fell to the ground after blocking a shot. Before he could recover, Dey ensured the ball ended inside the MFC net.
This was East Bengal's second loss in 16 rounds. Interestingly, KEB suffered both the losses in the second leg of the tournament. MFC moved to 27 points from eight wins and three draws.