East Bengal beat ASEB to end group stage campaign with a perfect record

The Kolkata side will face Shillong Lajong in the semi-finals on Thursday....

East Bengal beat ASEB Sports Club comprehensively by a 3-0 margin at the Nehru Stadium, Guwahati tonight and booked a place in the semis with a perfect record in the group stage of the Bordoloi Trophy. The Red and Gold brigade made three changes to the playing XI which defeated United Sikkim 2-0. Dibyendu Sarkar, Yami and injured Nikhil Poojary made way for Luis Barreto under the bars, Prokash Sarkar and Jony Lamba respectively. East Bengal were in attacking mood from the very first minute of the match and took the lead on 6 minutes. Korean hitman Do-Dong Hyun scored from an assist from Jiten Murmu who dodged two defenders of ASEB and Dong did not miss the target. East Bengal kept on piling pressure and that resulted in another goal five minutes later. This time the Korean provided the assist as he passed the ball from centralmidfield to winger Prohlad Roy and the youngster made no mistake in putting the ball inside the target. Six minutes later, East Bengal suffered a big blow when custodian Luis Barreto was injured while catching a long ball and he clashed with a defender from ASEB. He was bleeding from the head. Luis was nursed on the field and could not take any further part in the match. Dibyendu Sarkar replaced him. Luis Barreto was taken to the hospital and a CT scan was done with 14 stitches around the injured portion near the eye. Luis will also go through a few optical check-ups before doctors discharge him from hospital. As play resumed, East Bengal kept attacking with their flanks coming into play and even the central midfield duo of Prokash Sarkar and Jony Lamba was controlling the midfield well. ASEB tried to come back into game by interchanging their players on both the flanks. Few minutes later, the play was again held up by the match commissioner as the lone ambulance that took Barreto to the hospital did not return. It was for eighteen long minutes this time when the play was held up before the ambulance came and play resumed again. The score line was in favour of East Bengal 2-0 at the end of the first half. In the second half the Assam side began on a positive note. They changed their long ball tactics and tried playing more on the ground and stressed on passing football. This resulted in few positive attacks from Akram Narzary but Dibyendu stood tall to diminish them. In the 50th minute, Do-Dong got a great chance to get his brace but he missed the target by a whisker. In the 59th minute Assam’s Akaram Narzary's shot was way above the target and this was the last positive shot on target for them. Few minutes later in the 68th minute, East Bengal extended their lead, when academy Jony Lamba scored a blinder from 40-yards and it did not miss the target. The goalkeeper did not have any clue of the shot and it curled in to give East Bengal a 3-0 lead. Seven minutes later, East Bengal could have got their fourth goal when Dong was fouled inside the penalty box but the referee did not blow his whistle to give a genuine penalty. The match ended with East Bengal winning 3-0. With this win East Bengal finished the group stage campaign with a perfect record and recorded 9 points from 3 games. They will now face Shillong Lajong in the semi-finals on Thursday.