Ratings: Cleiton Silva brace fails to inspire East Bengal to win against NorthEast United

The Red and Gold Brigade played their first draw of the season.

East Bengal got their first draw of the season as a spirited NorthEast United grind out a hard-earned draw in ISL 2022-23 from the Red & Golds in Kolkata. In a high-scoring encounter, the ninth-placed and the bottom-placed neutralised each other by scoring three each to end the game 3-3. This is only the first draw of East Bengal and the second of NorthEast United. East Bengal's Cleiton scored a brace while three different players were on the scoresheet for NorthEast. As a consequence of this draw, the table remains the same after the ISL 2022-23 game.

Against such a backdrop, let us examine how both teams' players fared in the game.

East Bengal FC (by Souvari Paul)

Kamaljit Singh - 6.5

Made two saves and conceded thrice. Didn’t have much to do in the cases of any of NorthEast’s goals. Apart from the goals, looked sturdy mostly with a few glitches.

Mohamad Rakip - 7.5

Rakip repeated his performance from the last game. Took one shot and whipped in three crosses, many of which were dangerous. Had many crucial touches and made a few goal-saving contributions.

Lalchungnunga - 5.0

Looked a bit rusty after missing out last game. Had a poor first half. Gradually grew into the game to provide stability to the defence in the second half. Made a bad mistake toward the end to concede the third.

Charalombous Kyriakou - 6.5

Looked decent at the base of East Bengal’s defence. Should have done better to prevent NorthEast from scoring so many.  

Jerry Lalrinzuala - 7.0

Aided the attack very well by whipping in a number of good crosses. Made a few good goal-saving contributions. But should have done better to prevent NorthEast’s attackers.

https://youtu.be/g5fGRqzQy7g

Sumeet Passi - 6.5

Passi looked decent in midfield. He played his part well in place of Suhair and looked lively on the right. His cross earned East Bengal the penalty from which East Bengal scored the third.

Souvik Chakrabarti  - 7.0

Souvik’s return to the team went quite well. Looked a bit rusty in the beginning. However, he grew into the game. He was the player with the highest number of passes and touches for his side. Whipped in three crosses.

Alex Lima - 6.5

Looked very good in the midfield. Played for 80 minutes and had 59 touches and played 45 passes. Had to be subbed off in the second half.

Naorem Mahesh Singh - 8.0

Once again Naorem played very well on the left side. Took two shots and whipped in six crosses, most of which looked dangerous. Made a number of good runs into NorthEast’s penalty area.

Jake Jervis - 7.5

Scored a brilliant overhead goal at the end of the first half. Took two shots and created one chance. Was a constant threat in attack.

Cleiton Silva - 8.5

Scored a brace to become the top scorer of the ISL 2022-23 with 12 goals. Took three shots in total and created two chances. As usual, was a constant threat throughout. 

Substitutes 

Himanshu Jangra - 4.0

Played for around 15 minutes but was not able to impact the game much. No significant contribution whatsoever.

Jordan O’Doerty - N/A

NorthEast United FC (by Keshava Verma)

Arindam Bhattacharya – 6.5

Arindam had an unpleasant game, as his goal was infiltrated on three different occasions, but despite this, the veteran goalkeeper was on point, whenever he was called to action. His stunning save in the 85th minute was gigantic in his team’s draw.

Mashoor Shereef – 6.5

Mashoor had a not-so-decent game tonight. The player was low on confidence and was poor with his positioning in the build-up that lead to East Bengal’s first goal.

Aaron Evans – 6.5

The Australian did his fair bit in the backline and made a total of five clearances. His first-half performance though was poor, as he wasn’t very solid with his defending, and allowed East Bengal’s attackers, to exploit dangerous positions.

Tondonba Singh - 6

Northeast’s left-back lost possession a total of 14 times and played no accurate long balls or crosses. Tondonba was also not very stirring with his defensive contribution.

Alex Saji – 6 

Saji had a pretty poor game tonight. The 22-year-old gave away a penalty and was also constantly exploited by East Bengal’s attackers, who were a regular threat from his wing.

Pragyan Gogoi - 6

Pragyan had a pretty average game in the middle of the park. The player only had 35 touches in the 67 minutes for which he was on the pitch and played a solitary key pass.

Jithin MS - 7

Jithin was pretty agile throughout the night, made impressive runs, and created some pretty impressive chances for his team. Jithin also scored Northeast’s second goal and had a great game.

Joseba Beitia - 7

Beitia was an absolute beast in the midfield tonight in the ISL 2022-23 game. The Spaniard had a total of 74 touches and a 91% passing accuracy along with a number of clearances.

Parthib Gogoi – 7.5

The local lad was definitely the highlanders’ best player tonight. Parthib also created a number of chances and was great with his passing along with his out-of-the-box banger.

Romain Philippoteaux – 7

Romain was once again impressive for NorthEast United and was brilliant with his ball control and movements. The French also assisted Northeast’s second goal.

Kule Mbombo 5.5

Mbombo was probably the poorest player for the Highlanders tonight. The player got two glorious opportunities inside the opening five minutes, but astonishingly failed to hit the target even once, and was pretty quiet throughout the game

Substitutes

Gani Nigan – 6.5

In the 13 minutes for which he was on the pitch, Gani was decent enough with his passing and attacking gameplay, and also assisted NorthEast United’s important equalizer, after a brilliant run on the edge of the box.

Laldanmawia Ralte - 6

Danmawai also played some key passes since coming on but missed a glorious header opportunity right at the end of the game, which could’ve handed the Highlanders the win.

Imran Khan – 6.5

Imran made a ton of difference after coming on, as he scored the equalizer for the Highlanders, and helped them bring home a crucial point from the ISL 2022-23 game.

Hira Mondol - 6

Hira was on the field for only 15 minutes, in that time the player had only 11 touches, and initiated some attacks from the left flank.

Joe Zohrliana – 6.5

Joe did well to stop East Bengal’s attack from the right wing and was also involved in Northeast’s attacks.