I-League 2017: East Bengal 3-0 Chennai City: Red and Golds stamp authority ahead of Kolkata Derby

East Bengal continued their unbeaten start to the I-League with a 3-0 win over Chennai City FC at the Barasat Stadium in Kolkata.

Goals from Wedson Anselme (50'), Willis Plaza (75') and a Lalrindika Ralte (90+6') [Pen.] spot-kick in added time was enough for the hosts to secure a smart win against the newcomers.

Trevor Morgan was forced to make a solitary change, given Mehtab Hossain’s suspension with Rowllin Borges being ushered in to hold fort. Interestingly, Jackichand Singh failed to even make it to the bench.

Chennai City meanwhile made four changes to the side that was beaten by Shillong Lajong with Debabrata Roy, Denson Devadas, Dharmaraj Ravanan and Dhanpal Ganesh coming into the side. 

The lively Nikhil Poojary seemed to be the best attacking outlet for the home side that was bent on utilising the wings well. 

However, in the seventh minute, the Maharashtra-born winger missed a glaring chance after Wedson Ansleme set him up with a perfectly measured through ball. His first time shot though failed to trouble Abhra Mondal in goal as it went flying over the bar.



In the 18th minute, it was Robin Singh who was the guilty man after some neat interplay between Wedson and Poojary. The winger then played on an overlapping Rahul Bheke whose cross was completely wasted by Singh who put it over.

A minute before half time, Willis Plaza could only head over the bar, Narayan Das's long ball that bypassed the entire Chennai City defense. 

Even though the away side did manage to threaten through Vinicius and Charles, they failed to produce anything of importance in the box.

The second half promised fireworks and it took only five minutes for it to kickstart. Lalrindika Ralte’s lob from around 23 yards outside the box found Wedson Anselme who hit it first time giving Mondal no chance, with a deflection off a diving Yumnam Raju sending the keeper the wrong way.



In between Vincius was guilty of skying a free-kick from close range.

However, East Bengal continued to look unstoppable with another Caribbean dynamo bringing up the second goal of the night. Lalrindika Ralte, again started the move as Wedson and Willis Plaza played a one-two, where the Haitian was brilliant in finding the Trinidadian on a straight run. Plaza finished it off and brought up his sixth goal of the season as he left Dharmaraj Ravanan for dead in his wake.

In spite of the myriad attacks launched by Chennai City, their wastefulness in the opposition box defined their performance on the day.

The icing on the cake came deep into injury time when substitute Thongkhosiem Haokip was stamped by Anyichie Echezona and referee Rahul Gupta pointed to the spot.



After a brilliant performance, skipper Ralte stepped up and smashed it past a hapless Mondal to make it a hat-trick of goals on the night.

East Bengal now go into the Kolkata derby with a lot of confidence, having picked up a creditable win.

With 19 points in their kitty, the Red and Gold brigade also open up a three-point lead over second placed Mohun Bagan, who have played a game less.

Robin Charles Raja, meanwhile would go home with some confidence given their first half performance but the standings don’t reflect any of it - they are placed bottom with four points from seven games.