5 Star East Bengal decimate Highlanders at Salt Lake in biggest ever ISL victory
The Red and Gold Brigade didn’t look back after netting the opener in the 14th minute courtesy a glorious finish from Borja from outside the box. 10 minutes later, Cleiton Silva doubled the lead, heading home a delightful lob from Mandar Rao Desai. Pegged back twice in a matter of minutes, the Highlanders mounted a fightback, but the red and gold defence held strong amidst a flurry of chances at the other end.
At the break Coach Carles opted to replace Vishnu with Nandhakumar and the latter simply stole the show in the 2nd half. Nandha first trebled the lead in the 62nd minute and then set up Cleiton in the 66th minute to effectively seal the game with 30 minutes to go. The left winger then rounded off the 5 star effort flicking home Mahesh’s second assist of the night. The Highlanders had a chance to pull one back from the spot in injury time but Nestor’s left footed strike hit the bar and was cleared out.
With the clean sheet in the bag and 5 goals to their name, East Bengal climbed upto 7th spot sitting just a point behind NEUFC on 6th with a game in hand.
Speaking after the match, Coach Cuadrat said things finally came together for his team after a tough few weeks in business. “Sometimes luck doesn’t help and today everything worked for us. All the goals were nice. So, the work we did in the training ground paid off and I’m happy that the players got confidence”, he added.
East Bengal FC will now host Punjab FC this weekend looking to grab maximum points in order to get into the top 6 and build momentum before the next international break.