East Bengal FC go down 0-3 to Mumbai City FC

East Bengal FC suffered their fourth defeat at home this season as they lost 0-3 to Mumbai City FC in their tenth Hero Indian Super League 2022/23 fixture at the Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan on Friday evening. The result meant that EBFC remained rooted to the eighth spot, while MCFC reclaimed their position at the top of the table.
The Red & Gold Brigade returned home almost after a month and Head Coach Stephen Constantine made a solitary change to his playing XI. Joran O’ Doherty was replaced by Charalambos Kyriakou.
In the 4th minute, right-back Ankit Mukherjee displayed a tremendous presence of mind to make a goal-line clearance, denying Greg Stewart in the process.
Mumbai City FC scored their first goal in the 26th minute after Lalengmawia Ralte evaded the offside trap and fired a goal past EBFC custodian Kamaljit Singh.
East Bengal showed signs of improvement in the second half. Constantine made a statement by making 3 substitutions immediately after the break. Eliandro, Souvik Chakrabarti and Aniket Jadhav replaced Semboi Haokip, Kyriacou and VP Suhair respectively.
Five minutes into the second half, the Islanders netted their second goal. Stewart found the back of the net after running past the EBFC defenders.
The third goal of the night came in the 59th minute via Lalengmawia Ralte after some good passes from the MCFC players inside the penalty box.
Ten minutes later, Eliandro had a solid chance to score when he was inside the box, but his shot was deflected by the opposition skipper and centre-back Mourtada Fall.
The Red & Gold Brigade will return to the VYBK on December 30 (Friday) to host Bengaluru FC.