Panchkula: East Bengal beat Minerva Punjab FC here Sunday by a solitary goal in their penultimate round match to remain in the title hunt and take the battle for I-League crown down the wire. Enrique Esqueda scored the winning goal for East Bengal in the 75th minute at the Tau Devi Lal Stadium here.
East Bengal’s win means that the I-League title will be decided on the final match day on Saturday. With 39 points from 19 matches, East Bengal are just one point behind leaders Chennai City FC (40 points from 19 matches).
The Kolkata giants will need to win Saturday their final match against Gokulam Kerala FC in Kozhikhode and hope that Chennai City FC either draw or lose against Minerva in Coimbatore on the same day if they want to lift the trophy for the first time. Both the title-deciding matches will be played at the same time at 5pm.
Holders Minerva, who were out of reckoning for the title long time back, started the game on an attacking note and enjoyed a good spell of possession in the first few minutes, but East Bengal did not allow the hosts an inch in midfield. The game was mostly played in the middle of the park in the first quarter.
Esqueda, Santos and Ralte combined well to come close to scoring twice for the visitors, but some great keeping by Minerva’s Arshdeep and the woodwork played a critical role in ensuring that the first 45 minutes of the game remained goalless.
The second half began with East Bengal taking the initiative to go into the lead, but they could not breach the Minerva defence on most occasions. They came really close to scoring on a couple of occasions but some exceptional goalkeeping by Arashdeep ensured that the visitors did not get the elusive goal.
Minerva, who were playing a very organised game, somehow gave way to the visitors, when a wrong clearance saw Enrique Esqueda make no mistake in grabbing the opportunity and find the back of the net in the 75th minute.
PTI
