India football giant, East Bengal is not having the best of its debut in the 2020-21 Indian Super League (ISL), as it is still in the search for its maiden win. It is coming off a 2-2 draw against former champion, Chennaiyin FC, on Saturday, as the former stays at 10th, while the latter has risen to the seventh spot.
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The match began with Lallianzuala Chhangte's 13th-minute strike, that put Chennaiyin ahead at half-time. However, Matti Steinmann levelled it in the 59th minute, while Rahim Ali restored Chennaiyin's lead in the 64th minute, only to be balanced again by Steinmann, four minutes later.
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Meanwhile, following the game, EB head coach Robbie Fowler was engaged in a verbal duel with broadcaster host and pundit, Eelco Schattorie, as the former said, "I want to win every game. We are playing with what we got. Our players are giving everything. It's rich coming from you sitting there. There are positive signs there. You are just sitting there and giving criticism."
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Schattorie quickly responded by saying, "I was making objective observation and I gave credit for the change you made in second half."
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Nonetheless, Fowler came up with another brutal reply and said, "It's easy to sit and criticise when you haven't won the game. We should a lot of fight and passion, but we are being the blackball here. It's about catchup for us and we had a lot of fight. Let's start with positives here. That's what happens in football games. We have a plan A and Plan B, but the first half wasn't a great performance. Lads at half-time had a few words to turn this around. We tweaked the game in second half. If we lost it would have been an injustice."
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As for Chennaiyin coach, Csaba Laszlo seemed to be shattered with the result and said, "I am really destroyed. I think in defence SCEB had one chance. Deepak (Tangri) was good today. To concede two goals from set-pieces is not okay for me. We are missing chances which is frustrating. I don't give up. I stay with my players. If quality is not there, then you are suffering. It is painful. We need to keep going. My team dominated, but it's not enough. You need to be clinical if you want to stay in the top. Now we are somewhere in the middle, having missed the chance to go close to top-four."
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Laszlo also spoke on EB's formation change, which did give trouble to Chennaiyin. "I saw it. We told Memo (Moura) to stay little deeper. Why we didn't win today was because we made mistakes in set pieces. I need to analyse. Even after we conceded we had chances to score. The small things is not there. I am a human who doesn't like to lose, but I am also realistic. But, it's a painful draw," he concluded.
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Furthermore, goal-scorer Chhangte expressed his delight at the freedom given to him by the coach to play freely. "The coach gave me the freedom to switch flanks. I am pretty comfortable playing either side. I prefer the left side. I am happy with the goal, but I would have been happy with the win," he observed.
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