Kolkata giant East Bengal keeps their hope alive for the I-League Championship.

Kolkata giant East Bengal keeps their hope alive for the I-League Championship. Today in a 21st round clash at home Salt Lake Stadium, Kolkata. It was a do or die encounter for both sides for keeping their hopes alive in the championship battle. East Bengal have beaten the Goanese giant Salgaocar in a 1-0 margin, Tolgay Ozbey scored the solitary goal for the homeside in the 54^th minute of the match. Both the teams missed few of their key players due to injury & card problem today, even the Goanese side missed their coach Karim Bencharifa in the bench due to his previous red card. The visitors started the match in a see-saw style while the hosts were a bit of aggressive from the beginning although they couldn’t get rid of the visitors in the first half of the game, rather the visitors got few opportunities from the counter attack in the first half, they failed to convert them due to the bold performance of the comeback man East Bengal goalkeeper Sandip Nandy, the first half went to goalless. After the restart of the game East Bengal increased pressure in the penetrative zone of the visitors, got the result, Tolgay headed the ball in the net while Robin Singh lobbed the ball from the right wing. After the much needed goal the hosts changed their strategy, the went to 4-4-2 from 4-3-3 & started to dominate the midfield & defenceline. Meanwhile Salgaocar got few opportunities from the counter attack, replaced Rino Anto took a solid grounder for the visitors from just inside the box at the dying moments of the game while Sunil Kumar for the hosts saved it from the goalline. Now East Bengal reaches in the second position of the I-League table with 38 points in 21 matches, Salgaocar remain 34 points in 21 matches while Dempo SC leading the tally with 46 points in 21 matches. There were two another matches of I-League today, two Goanese giants Churchill Brothers & Sporting Club made an 1 all draw in Margau while Pune FC won their home match against Pailan Arrows in an 1-0 margin.

There is a vital encounter of I-League 21st round tomorrow while the Kolkata giant Mohun Bagan will take on Air India in Baliyari, Pune. League contender Mohun Bagan is going to miss few of their key players like Barreto, Lima, Jewel Raja tomorrow, only the good news for the visitors is that they will start with their goal machine Odafa Okoli from the beginning, visitors are in just third postion of the tally now with 37 points in 20 matches, if they can win tomorrow they will cross their arch-rival & will be second in the league table so they are eyeing for the win only while the hosts are fighting for relegation.

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