Mohun Bagan & East Bengal locked in 2-2 draw in a fiesty thriller & share ISL points

 

Kolkata derby has ended in a stalemate.  East Bengal vs Mohun Bagan ended 2-2 at the Salt Lake Stadium on Saturday.  The green-maroon managed to avoid defeat with a last-minute goal.  Antonio Habas continued his unbeaten streak against East Bengal in the ISL.  At the same time, Mohun Bagan also maintained their unbeaten ISL record against East Bengal.

 There is no change in the points table of the match.  With 20 points in 11 matches, Mohun Bagan remained in fifth position with FC Goa leading in the league .  On the other hand, East Bengal remained eight with 12 points from 11 matches.  Ajay Chhetri scored for East Bengal and Clayton Silva from penalty.  Armando Sadiku and Dimitri Petratos scored for Mohun Bagan.  This is the first time a Kolkata derby has been drawn in ISL.  Mohun Bagan has won all the previous six matches.  But that record could be broken on Saturday itself.  East Bengal was leading until three minutes before the end of the match.  But Petratos embraced the moment and scored.

 The battle of the derby this time was a battle of brains between the two coaches.  Antonio Habas of Mohun Bagan and Carles Kuadrat of East Bengal.   Just as Habas' razor-sharp wit was sampled for some time in the match, Kuadrat is behind instilling an aggressive mentality and ultimately a no-lose mentality in the East Bengal team.  

 Many did not think that the start of the Kolkata derby on Saturday could be like this.

 Usually, both teams start off cautiously, sizing up their opponents.  But two goals were scored in the first 16 minutes of this derby.  The game has just begun.  All the spectators could not even sit in their seats properly.  East Bengal went ahead in that.  Nishu Kumar attacked from the left side.  He floated the ball towards the box.  Ajay Chhetri, who played in the midfield, entered the box in place of Shouvik Chakraborty.  He caught the ball in the net by blocking his feet with the floating ball.  Mohun Bagan goalkeeper Vishal Kaith had nothing to do.  Brendan Hamill is also to blame in this case.  He did not notice Ajay entering the box.  At the last minute, the defender  tried to clear the ball with his head, but before that, Ajay blocked his foot and scored.

 It was very important for East Bengal to score early.  But they could not take the advantage of moving forward.  At that moment, if they could have kept the pressure and picked up one more goal, they would have had a lot of advantage.  They tried.  Moments after the goal, there was a chance due to a careless Mohan defense, but the goal was not scored.  Their danger increased in the 13th minute when Anwar Ali went off injured.  Amandeep Khan came down to that place.  But even with the goal, East Bengal entered into a shell.  Mohun Bagan took advantage of that.  After the goal, they increased their attacks.  Equalized in 16 minutes.  Hamill wins the ball from an attack on the right.  He floated the ball towards the box.  Sadiqur scored by executing a brilliant off the turn shot . 

After conceding the goal, East Bengal's defence game increased.  Carles Cuadrat's boys started to play defensively instead of aggressively.  At that moment, East Bengal's game looked like they could concede at any moment.  Mohun Bagan stormed the red-yellow half.  Sahal & Co was attacking by playing passes among themselves.  On the other hand, East Bengal couldn't get past their own half and lost the possession repeatedly .  Mohun Bagan's defenders had no problem in stopping attacks even though they sometimes attacked one or two times.  Sadiqu had an easy chance after 40 minutes.  East Bengal defender could not clear Kian Nasiri's cross.  Sadiku blasted the ball over the bar despite receiving the ball from close range. A gilt edge chance gone . 

 In the next five minutes, East Bengal suddenly came out of the defensive shell.  One attack after another, they took the breath away from Mohun Bagan.  Red-yellow could not increase the gap even though there were several situations to score.

 After the break, there was a change in East Bengal's game.  They started playing aggressively from the beginning.  The results are immediately seen.  Mohun Bagan were under more pressure as Hamill went up injured.  Deepak Tangri misjudged this situation.  Nandakumar floated the ball from the right.  Mahesh in the box had a chance to head.  Before that, Tangri came from behind and knocked him down.  The referee did not delay in awarding the penalty.  Mohun Bagan footballers immediately objected.  They surrounded the referee and the linesman and started protesting.  However, the way Tangri hit Mahesh despite not getting the ball, football experts believe that the penalty decision is correct.

It is his nature to remain calm under pressure.  Clayton showed the same attitude when taking penalty shots.  There was an opportunity to advance the team.  In such a situation, Panenka took a kick.  He floated the ball lightly during the shot.  Kaith had no chance of stopping the ball, having already jumped to the left.  Although not after the first goal, East Bengal did not give up on defence after getting the second goal.  Instead, they choose the path of attack.  Mohun Bagan was looking very shaky under the influence of red and yellow.  Mohun Bagan coach Antonio Lopez Habas brought down World Cup player Jason Cummings to equalize.  

 That regret was over in the 87th minute.  In this case too, East Bengal's defence is responsible.  They couldn't get the ball out of the box.  Lalchungnunga could not clear Sahal's shot from the left side.  It fell in front of the empty Petratos.  He blasted the ball into the net from close.  Both teams had chances during injury time.  But neither team could pick up the winning goal.

 It's not uncommon for derbies to get heated up.  Saturday's derby is no exception.  The two teams had trouble with fouling at different times of the match.  However, in the 83rd minute, the way Petratos threw East Bengal's player Sayan Banerjee by throat, the referee had nothing to say even if he showed him a red card instead of a yellow card.  There was a similar hard tackle from behind by a East Bengal player in the first half but the player escaped a red card .