East Bengal crash to 6th straight defeat

Published Tue, Apr 27 10 11:52 PM

Kolkata, Apr 27 (PTI) East Bengal tonight brought their disastrous AFC Cup campaign to an end with a 0-4 loss to Al Nejmeh of Lebanon at the floodlit Yuba Bharati Krirangan here. Atwi Abbas (2'', 41st), Najjarine Cheikh-El Bilal (67''), Cisse Medicke Pape (36'') scored for Al Nejmeh as the Lebanese outfit made a mockery of East Bengal''s defence. The win, however, was not enough for Al Nejmeh to make the pre-quarterfinals as Al Qadsia (Kuwait) and Al Ittihad (Syria) advanced the next round from group D. East Bengal thus capped their sixth successive defeat as they ended their campaign. As a matter of fact, East Bengal conceded 20 goals in six matches, while they were able to score only five times. In absence of their centre back Uga Okpara, East Bengal''s defence wore a miserable look as the likes of Soumik Dey, Harmanjot Khabra struggled against the Al Nejmeh attack. Having recovered from his hamstring injury, Indian captain Bhaichung Bhutia started in the line-up and played the full-time but Al Nejmeh dominated right from the beginning and did not give any chance to East Bengal. Coach Philippe de Ridder surprised at his team selection when the Belgian opted to keep the likes of Abel Hammond and Mehrajuddin Wadoo on the bench. The Ghanaian striker was included in place of Budhiram Tudu in the 70th minute but it was little too late as Hammond sparkled but without any result. Looking to increase the margin in their pre-quarterfinal aspiration, Al Nejmeh drew the first blood through Abbas who scored from his left-footer. Abbas was very impressive with his powerful left-footer and he almost made it 2-0 in the 23rd minute but his shot went over the cross bar. The Lebanese outfit scored the second goal in the 36th minute when Cisse got a ball from top of East Bengal box and he launched a powerful left-footer that hit the right post before entering the net as goalkeeper Priyant Singh was caught unawares. Making a mockery of East Bengal defence, the Lebanese side made 3-0 before the break as Abbas scored his second goal. In the 67th minute, Al Nejmeh completed the rout through a right-footed long ranger by Bilal.

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