East Bengal posts dominant victory over NorthEast

GUWAHATI: East Bengal FC broke its winless run against NorthEast United FC in the Indian Super League with a 3-1 victory at the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium here on Thursday.

A first-half goal from Cleiton Silva (11’) and second-half strikes from Charis Kyriakou (52’) and Jordan O’Doherty (84’) ensured three points for East Bengal, before Matt Doherty’s consolation effort (90’) opened NorthEast’s goal account for the season.

East Bengal took the lead in the 11th minute after some diligent work from Mahesh Naorem Singh. NorthEast’s Mohamed Irshad got caught on the ball during the team’s build-up, which gave Mahesh an opportunity to pinch it from the full-back and lay it to Silva, who made no mistake with his finish.

Home team NEUFC had better possession in the first half, but was struggling to create any real goalscoring chances.

East Bengal started the second half with real zest. It went 2-0 up seven minutes into the second period, thanks to some good work on the right wing by VP Suhair, who set up an onrushing Kyriakou for a bending strike from the edge of the box.

EB killed the match in the 84th minute courtesy of a quick transition, with Mobashir Rahman setting up O’Doherty, who finished it with aplomb. NorthEast then finally opened its goal account for the season one minute into second half stoppage time. It was the combination of Emil Benny and Derbyshire, with the latter scoring a near-post header from an inch-perfect corner.

RESULT: NorthEast United FC 1 (M Derbyshire 90) lost to East Bengal FC 3 (C Silva 11, C Kyriakou 52, J O’Doherty 84)