Striker Dudu Omagbemi pumped in four goals, including a hat-trick, as East Bengal thumped Chennai City FC 7-1 on Saturday to remain in the Hero I-League title race. Playing host at the Salt Lake Stadium here, East Bengal gave a commanding performance to take its tally to 29 points after 16 matches and move to second place.
East Bengal was frustrated in the first quarter as several of its moves were either thwarted by the Chennai defenders or lacked the finishing touch. Once it tasted blood, through Al Amna’s goal in the 20th minute, the home team was unstoppable. Al Amna, who got a long aerial ball from Lalram Chullova, got lucky in his third attempt after being blocked by Chennai goalkeeper T. Kabir.
Minutes later, Al Amna was in action again. He quickly took the ball and passed it to Chullova, whose cross from the left was inadvertently slotted in by a sliding Chennai defender Dharmaraj Ravanan.
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East Bengal banked on the momentum to rattle the Chennai defence. Omagbemi hogged the limelight with his unbelievable performance.
The strongly-built Nigerian began his hunt with a stunning goal. Showing opportunism, Omagbemi stole the ball, sent in by Mehtab Singh, inside the box and shot home in the 32nd minute. When East Bengal returned to the pitch with a 3-0 lead, Omagbemi latched on to another scintillating move from the dashing Al Amna to score his second. Ansumana Kromah made some contribution when he nicely took it up and set up Omagbemi to beat an advancing Kabir through a grounder.
Amidst several missed opportunities, Chennai managed to reduce the margin as Mashoor Shereef put a beautiful ball from the left into the net. Omagbemi netted his fourth off a deflection originating from a corner and Gabriel Fernanades scored his first goal to complete East Bengal’s biggest win of the season.
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The result: East Bengal 7 (Al Amna 20, Ravanan 23-og, Dudu 32, 49, 56, 60, Gabriel 84) bt Chennai City FC 1 (Mashoor 59).