Goa: NorthEast United FC outraged SC East Bengal with a scoreline of 2-0 at the PJN Stadium, Fatorda. After a humiliating defeat by Hyderabad FC, Coach Khalid Jamid planned well against the Red and Gold. Today’s defeat extended the winless strain for SC East Bengal as the Kolkata giants lost seven games in a row this season in Indian Super League (ISL).
The Highlanders started with a negative note as Hernan Santana faced injury during the warm-up. The first 30 minutes witnessed two teams clearing the attacks and having some lose the play. Adding to their injury worries, SC East Bengal center-back Franjo Price left the field with a twisted ankle as Amir Dervisevic replaced him in the first half.
Eyeing for that Goal! 👀#NEUSCEB #StrongerAsOne #TogetherWeAreInfinite pic.twitter.com/cgKC4QqYfM
— NorthEast United FC (@NEUtdFC) December 17, 2021
The match evidenced some harsh tackles as Rochharzela and Naorem Singh had to encounter yellow cards. Both the teams seemed to lack quality attack as there were no shots held on target in the first half of the game. The second half kicked off with an immediate yellow card to Lalkhawpuimawia who shot straight to the goalkeeper from inside the box, a few minutes before the hour mark.
At the stroke of 61st minute, Raju Gaikwad made an unwanted error as the defender gave the ball away to the Highlanders inside SC East Bengal half. A subsequent cross from the chance by VP Suhair opened the deadlock for United. His right-foot shot went past Arindam after hitting the inside of the left-sided post. Patrick Flottmann extended the lead by scoring his first goal of the Indian Super League by getting his head on the end of a cross that came following a free-kick. Later on, Khassa Camara and Mathias Coureur tried to increase the difference as they came close to scoring but their attempts went wide respectively.
3️⃣ points ✅
Moving up the table ✅@NEUtdFC got the better of @sc_eastbengal in a comfortable win! 👊#NEUSCEB #HeroISL #LetsFootball #ISLRecap pic.twitter.com/xZTBEV446y— Indian Super League (@IndSuperLeague) December 17, 2021
Adding to injury worries, SC East Bengal forward Antonio Perosevic earned a red card in the latter part of the game for barging into referee Rahul Kumar Gupta out of frustration. The Highlanders held their defense well following the advantage as they secure crucial three points in the battle of table- laggers.
NorthEast United FC will face another Kolkata giants ATK Mohun Bagan at the PJN Stadium in their next clash on Tuesday while SC East Bengal will face the third ranker Hyderabad FC at the Athletic Stadium on Thursday.
