Tags:
Journalism of Courage
CALCUTTA, FEB 11: The East Bengal wagon hardly wasted steam in moving past Indian Bank in a Group B National Football League match at the Salt Lake Stadium here.
Three strikes, two by Raman Vijayan who is now the joint leading scorer with seven goals, and one by Bijen Singh, helped the local side carve out a 3-0 win over the Chennai bank.
East Bengal are now happily placed at the top of the ladder with 23 points while Indian Bank continue to languish near the bottom with seven points. The League is over for the latter.
Raman Vijayan almost struck another goal late in the game, but failed to reach a cross from Bhaichung Bhutia in front of an empty goal. A charging Indian Bank goalkeeper Sebastian Netto could not get to Bhutia’s cross and Vijayan, inside the six-yard box, slipped and placed the ball wide. That was the easiest chance he could have expected. The attempt, however, left him with a pulled hamstring and he had to be carried away on a stretcher.
The first goal for East Bengal came in the30th minute with Raman Vijayan, connecting Suley Mussah’s centre from the right to head home over the defence. Ghanian Mussah played an excellent game today to create more opportunities for East Bengal.
Vijayan created the next goal for Bijen Singh. It all started with an Emmanuel Opoku lob in the 44th minute which Vijayan trapped well and dodged past the defence. With Netto charging out, Vijayan passed to Bijen Singh who just had to slot home.
The final goal came in the second half with Bhutia doing the spadework. After moving ahead, Bhutia passed to Vijayan in the 57th minute to put East Bengal 3-0 up.
