Laldanmawia Ralte scored the only goal of the match from the spot late in injury time to hand East Bengal a narrow 1-0 victory over Aizawl FC in the quarter-final clash of Super Cup on Sunday in Bhubaneswar.
Khalid Jamil chose to stick to his winning combination and went with the same starting XI that won 2-1 against Mumbai City FC. Ubaid C.K. started in goal with a back four comprising of Samad Mallick, Eduardo Ferreira, Gurwinder Singh and Lalram Chullova. Uganda's Khalid Aucho slotted in as a defensive midfielder with Cavin Lobo and Mahmoud Al-Amna in front of him. Katsumi Yusa and Laldanmawia Ralte manned the wings with Dudu Omagbemi leading the attack.
Santosh Kashyap made two changes to the side that trumped Chennaiyin in tie-breakers. Arup Debnath was replaced by Lalawmpuia in goal and Lalkhawpuimawia was relegated to the bench in favour of Lalmuan Kima.
East Bengal started the game on the ascendency and the first significant chance of the game fell for Dudu who was denied by some brilliant goalkeeping. The Nigerian had skipped his marker and got a feeble touch to the lobbed delivery by Katsumi from just outside the penalty box but saw his effort thwarted.
Referee Ramaswamy Coimbatore took a controversial call when he decided to wave away Amna's call for a penalty after the Syrian was clipped from behind by Jaryan.
East Bengal kept producing chances with the attacking trio of Dudu, Amna and Katsumi combining well to trouble Aizawl's defence. Around the half-hour mark, Samad showed that he has pace to burn when the right back out-paced his opposite number and served the ball on a platter for Dudu who failed to tap in from sniffing distance.
On the other hand, Aizawl got the first sight of goal when Saighani and Mawia played some fantastic one-touch football in midfield and released Andrei Ionescu who had acres of space in front of him to have a crack at goal. The Romanian rifled a bullet shot which went whiskers away from the near post and crashed at the wrong side of the netting.
Although East Bengal dominated proceedings, they were far from being clinical in front of goal, which meant that both sides went into the tunnel with the scoreboard unchanged.
Dudu's profligacy in front of goal continued in the second-half when the 32-year old failed to find the target after Lalwampuia got the better of him in a one-on-one situation.
Aizawl gradually shed their defensive shell and started making inroads in the attacking third. Ubaid remained rooted to his spot when Mawia decided to try his luck from the edge of the box but his effort went inches wide, much to the relief of the Keralite.
The two sides kept creating chances but none of them were potent enough to test the goalkeepers.
The game suddenly came to life in injury time when both sides had the opportunity to kill the game. Kima denied Amna with a close-range clearance when the ball looked destined to go in. At the other end, Ionescu bottled up an easy chance as the Romanian took an extra touch before pulling the trigger which gave Ubaid the time to re-position himself.
Seconds later, East Bengal went on a quick counter-attack after snatching away possession in their own half. Amna weaved another brilliant delivery for Kromah who raced past the last red shirt and just when he was about to shoot, Lalawmpuia came out of his line and fouled the Liberian inside the box. Ralte stepped up to take the penalty against his former club and scored from the spot sending the goalkeeper in the wrong direction.
With this win, East Bengal have sealed a semi-final berth for themselves and will face the winners between Jamshedpur FC and FC Goa on April 16.