Twelve games into the 2021/22 Indian Super League season, East Bengal finally have their first win; the Red and Gold Brigade beat FC Goa 2-1 at the GMC Athletic Stadium on Thursday night.
East Bengal claimed their first win of the season by beating FC Goa on Thursday night. Remarkably, the last time they won in the Indian Premier League was on February 7, 2021, when they emerged victorious against Jamshedpur, courtesy of goals from Matti Steinmann and Anthony Pilkington.
Mahesh Naorem Singh scored twice in Marco Rivera’s first match in charge of East Bengal. The attacker capitalized on a defensive error on both occasions before finishing superbly. As a result, the side moved off the foot of the table – to be replaced by a dwindling NorthEast United.
সুখকর অভিজ্ঞতা! 🔴🟡
— Indian Super League (@IndSuperLeague) January 20, 2022
Mario Rivera's 1️⃣𝐬𝐭 𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞 in charge 🤝 @sc_eastbengal's 1️⃣𝐬𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐧 in #HeroISL 2021-22#FCGSCEB #LetsFootball pic.twitter.com/2nYSUOkyUD
Mahesh opened the scoring in the ninth minute. A poor back pass from Goa captain Edu Bedia caught centre-back Anwar Ali unaware and in a compromising position. Mahesh, with momentum on his side, nicked the ball ahead of Ali and put it past Dheeraj Singh with ease.
Bedia nearly made amends for his error minutes later as he ghosted in the East Bengal box to get on the end of a Jorge Ortiz cross but failed to connect with it cleanly. The Goa midfielder, in the very next attack, played Alexander Romario Jesuraj in behind the opposition defence, but the wingback shot over from a promising position.
Goa were level in the 37th minute through Alberto Noguera. The midfielder collected a threaded pass from Ortiz in his stride before shooting across Arindam Bhattacharya into the far corner. Minutes later, Anwar Ali powered a header wide of the goal from a corner, during which he was allowed to attack the ball unchallenged.
To make matters worse, Ali gave the ball away cheaply to Mahesh inside his box with a reckless attempted pass out to Aibanbha Dohling in the 42nd minute, and the East Bengal attacker’s subsequent shot hit the crossbar, bounced on the line, and was awarded as a goal – even though the whole of the ball did not appear to have crossed the whole of the line.
East Bengal survived a scare right on the stroke of half-time as Franjo Prce blocked Airam Cabrera’s goalbound header on the line. Bedia had a free-kick saved by Bhattacharya after the restart, but, overall, Goa failed to create much in the second half and ended up losing to a hitherto winless East Bengal.
