East Bengal picked up a hard fought 2-1 win over Patha Chakra in their sixth match in the Calcutta Football League (CFL) 2017 on Thursday afternoon. Brandon Vanlalremdika and Mahmoud Al Amna scored for the Red and Golds while Jagannath Oraon scored Patha Chakra's solitary goal.
The minnows took the lead against all odds in the first half. Taking advantage of a gap created in the East Bengal defence, Joel Sunday made a run into the box from the left side. He went past his marker Mehtab Singh and passed the ball to Jagannath who just had to tap the ball into the net.
Khalid Jamil fielded Surabuddin Mullick as a striker from the very beginning alongside Joby Justin. The hat-trick hero from Peerless game missed a number of chances. At the stroke of half time, Brandon equalised after Patha Chakra goalkeeper Subham Roy failed to collect a back pass from his defender. The custodian fumbled inside the box as Brandon pounced on it and converted from almost a zero degree angle.
The second half proved to be even-steven as both the sides looked desperate for the second goal. Patha Chakra fought really hard and was almost on par with East Bengal performance wise. After waiting until the 88th minute, the Kolkata giants finally got their chance to take the lead.
Mahmoud Al Amna was pushed from the back inside the penalty box and the referee did not hesitate to point at the spot. Amna coolly converted to gift his team all three points. The decidion to award a penalty was controversial and it could have swayed either way. Amna was definitely pushed but there wasn't too much of an impact.
Here are the three things we learnt from this match:
Jagannath Oraon's top notch performance
Patha Chakra's goal scorer Jagannath Oraon was undoubtedly the player of the match today. He was at his very best and also scored the opening goal of the match. The right winger created constant problems for East Bengal debutante Tonmoy Ghosh who struggled on the pitch today. It was Jagannath's energy and enthusiasm on the pitch that kept the East Bengal defenders on their feet for the entire 90 minutes. Jagannath has surely grabbed the eyeballs of the recruiters from the big teams of the city after today's performance.
East Bengal attackers need to be more clinical up front
Just like their match against Railway FC last week, the East Bengal attackers missed a series of chances again. Surabuddin single-handedly missed 3 chances in the first half out of which at least one should have gone in. While in their previous game, the missed chances were not highlighted thanks to 3-0 scoreline, today the skeleton almost came out. Had Almna not converted his spot-kick, Khalid Jamil would have had to repent those chances. The I-League winning coach has to pay serious attention to this aspect of his side.
'Workhorse' Mahmoud Al Amna once again East Bengal's saviour
The Syrian international midfielder is slowly establishing himself as an indispensable player for the Red and Golds with every passing match. 34-year-old Mahmoud Al Amna, who joined the club this season from Aizawl is the team's main architect. The old workhorse runs box to box throughout the game. His defence splitting through passes, work rate at the centre of the pitch and his ability to score goals is what makes him a standout performer. It was more of the same today as the Syrian worked relentlessly and also scored the winning goal to maintain his team's 6-match winning streak in CFL 2017.