On the back of a five-match winning streak defending Calcutta Football League (CFL) champions East Bengal take the field on Wednesday against minnows Patha Chakra in a sixth round clash. Full three points against Patha Chakra will push East Bengal to the summit with a 2 points lead over rivals Mohun Bagan who are second in the league table.
Patha Chakra who qualified to the Premier Division this season as champions have not performed as per expectation. With quite a few quality names like Lalkamal Bhowmick and Eric Brown in their ranks, the Men in Purple were expected to play better football. They had started their campaign on a high with a 4-2 win over giants Mohammedan Sporting, but slowly faded away as the league progressed. They currently have four points from as many matches and are placed at the sixth position.
The picture of the East Bengal camp is extremly flowery on the other hand. They are yet to taste defeat in the league and have already scored 17 goals in the tournament. Without two foreign players, the team had outclassed Railway FC 3-0 in their last match.
Another very good news from the Red and Gold camp is that the Indian players have performed brilliantly. The team has two hat-trick heroes this time VP Suhair and Surabuddin Mullick which depicts how well the Indian brigade has fired.
Once again against Patha Chakra, the Kolkata giants will be without Trinidad and Tobago duo Willis Plaza and Carlyle Mitchell who will not be back until Friday from international duty. VP Suhair, Khalid Jamil's trusted lieutenant has unfortunately suffered an injury and will be out action tomorrow. Gabriel Fernandes likely to partner Joby Justin upfront replacing Suhair.
Another change which was noticed during the team's practice session was young defender Tanmoy Ghosh playing as a left-back in place of in-form Lalramchullova. Jamil may experiment with starting XI and have a look at how his reserve players are performing.
Kick off: 2:45 PM (IST)
Venue: East Bengal ground
Telecast: Kolkata TV
East Bengal Team News
Injury: VP Suhair
Suspended: None
Doubtful: None
Key Player: Mahmoud Al Amna