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East Bengal picked up a much-needed win on Sunday at the Barasat Stadium to get back in contention for the title and move back to third in the I-League table. They left it late, but eventually got the winner in stoppage time to register a 1-0 win over the young Indian Arrows side.
Without further ado, here's what stood out from the game:
East Bengal go all out in attack
Perhaps a result of their position in the table, but also perhaps influenced by what happened in the afternoon game, Khalid Jamil decided to field an ultra-attacking lineup for East Bengal.
Neroca FC winning earlier today saw them go top of the table, leaving East Bengal with more points to make up in their quest for the championship. So Jamil fielded six forwards, just one proper midfielder in Cavin Lobo and a back-three.
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Dudu Omegbemi, Ansumanah Kromah, Katsumi Yusa, Jobby Justin, Laldanmawia Ralte and Lalram Chullova all started. Yes, Jamil literally went for the full monty here!
Dudu played as the out and out striker, but the other five all constantly swapped positions, shuffling from the wing to the middle from time to time.
Lobo sat in midfield and tried to play neat passes for all of these forward players, but despite this, they couldn't find the back of the net until the very end.
Dudu missed two glorious chances - one in the first when his shot struck the post and one in the second when he missed an open header. The others were also guilty of not making the most of the openings created.
Arrows fail to take advantage of East Bengal's makeshift defence
As mentioned earlier, East Bengal played with a back-three because of the number of attacking players that Jamil fielded.
The defence for the Red and Gold brigade was Eduardo Ferreira, Salam Ranjan Singh and youngster Mehtab Singh. Arnab Mondal did not feature. That meant the pacy Indian Arrows forwards were able to make runs behind the defence and catch the East Bengal off-guard at times.
There were spells in the game where East Bengal's defence was all at sea. The Arrows took advantage of this anxiety as they looked to hit East Bengal on the counter.
And they really could have stolen the points when substitute Suresh Wagjam latched onto a good out-ball from defence to break free of the East Bengal defence and put a good ball into the box. Abhijit Sarkar was left with a simple finish to give his side the lead with the East Bengal defence scrambling to get back into position, but he could not get any power behind it and his tame effort went straight into the hands of the East Bengal keeper.
Looks like Bagan made the right decision
Forward Ansumana Kromah was let go of by Mohun Bagan halfway through this season after a string of disappointing performances since joining them in the summer.
Well, Kromah went from one half of Kolkata to the other after being released as he's now signed with East Bengal. The dyed hair is gone, but he still looks the same player with a horrible touch and hopeless finishing.
In this game, he showed the lack of composure that Bagan and their fans grew extremely frustrated with. He got in the way of his teammates, stealing chances away from them. When he did get good chances, his finishing was not up to the mark. All in all a disappointing showing.
Kromah becomes the second player to make the switch from Bagan to East Bengal after Katsumi Yusa did so prior to the season. On current evidence though, Bagan were fully justified in letting Kromah go.
Gill and the young Arrows put up a heroic stand
While East Bengal were definitely woeful in taking the chances that they got, some credit has to go to the Indian Arrows who defended heroically.
Normally known for sticking to their attacking ethos, the young Arrows decided to knuckle down and hold out for a point as the match wore on. And put everything on the line to deny East Bengal.
Prabhsukhan Singh Gill, their goalkeeper, was excellent, making a string of fine saves to deny the Kolkata giants. It was a cruel blow for him and his side when they conceded right at the death from Dudu's header.
He was named the man-of-the-match for his performance, but he was struggling to hold back tears even as he picked up this award post-match, the disappointment visible on his face.
Dudu saves East Bengal's blushes
In the 92nd minute, Dudu popped up with the winning goal to break the hearts of the Indian Arrows players.
Mohammed Rafique from midfield found Dudu in the box with a long ball and the Nigerian managed to connect with a looping header that got the better of Arrows keeper Prabhsukhan Singh Gill.
The keeper perhaps was a touch guilty of being out of position as he was off his line and it left him backpedalling in a futile attempt to get something on the ball as he watched it sail over him.
Dudu's header wasn't the greatest, but it was enough, in the end, to break the deadlock and spare the blushes for both East Bengal and their coach Khalid Jamil as it brought to an end a run of four games without a win.
