Cuttack: ‘Music therapy’ that is what the think-tank of East Bengal comprising assistant coach Ranjan Choudhury and former players Manoranjan Bhattacharjee, Bhaskar Ganguly and Tushar Rakshit had prescribed Monday for the players. The draw in the opening game against Churchill Brothers had put the players under a lot of pressure and to relieve them of it, ‘Music therapy’ was implemented.
It seemed to have worked as the nine-time champions defeated Chennai City FC 2-0 in their group A Fed Cup tie here Tuesday at the Barabati Stadium to keep their chances of qualifying for the semifinals alive. Both the goals were scored by birthday boy Robin Singh which helped East Bengal reach four points from two games.
Robin scored in the added time of the first half and in the 76th minute to emerge the hero of the game.
East Bengal looked much more compact than their first game against Churchill and attacked from the word go. With Mehtab Hossain and Rowlin Borges combining well in the midfield as double pivot, the attacks were quite fluid. They almost took the lead in the sixth minute when Narayan Das headed powerfully off a Hossain cross. Chennai custodian Karanjit Singh was beaten, but a defender cleared the ball off the line.
Seven minutes later, Karanjit was in the thick of action again as he parried Robin’s left-footed shot from 25 yards after he got the ball from Willis Plaza. The red-and-gold brigade turned on the heat and piled pressure on the Chennai defence line, courtesy of attacks led by Robin from the front and Wedson Anselme from the wing.
Chennai recouped from soaking pressure and with Soundarajan’s team increasing manpower in the midfield, they managed to keep the East Bengal attackers under control for some portion of the first session.
Entwined in a battle of possession, with neither side dominating the match, it took a mistake from Chennai City FC that helped East Bengal take the lead. A sloppy clearance from Chennai defender Dharamraj Ravanan, saw Plaza pick up the loose ball. Seeing Karnajit charging out towards him, Plaza flicked the ball to an unmarked Robin inside the box and the latter made no mistake in tapping it in.
Chennai City looked more comfortable on the ball in the second half and attacked with fluidity. In the 53rd minute, Debabrata Roy’s free-kick rattled the crossbar, an inch lower it would have been a goal for the Southern side.
After that the heat took its toll as some of the players of both the sides looked visibly jaded. Players could be seen frequently rushing to the sideline to refresh themselves with water and other fluids.
In the 72nd minute, Karanjit made a brilliant save to keep out Robin’s header from close range. However, he couldn’t do much as East Bengal were awarded a penalty after Ravanan had handled the ball inside the box. Robin coolly stepped up and beat Karanjit to his left to settle the nerves of East Bengal.
PNN