ISL 2022-23: Cleiton Silva helps East Bengal win 1-0 as Bengaluru FC suffers 3rd straight loss
ISL 2022-23: Bengaluru FC hosted East Bengal on Friday. However, the latter pulled off a stunning 1-0 win, thanks to the lone winning strike from Cleiton Silva, while the hosts suffered their third consecutive loss.
FollowCleiton Silva left his former fanbase in silence as he scored the sole winning goal of the contest. East Bengal (EB) handed former champion Bengaluru FC (BFC) its third straight failure of the season in the Indian Super League (ISL) at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru on Friday. The Blues failed to score in their third successive match, while the Torch Bearers secured their season’s maiden clean sheet. The Blues witnessed quite some players recover from injuries during the prolonged break as head coach Simon Grayson made three changes. Suresh Wangjam, Udanta Singh and Javier Hernandez started this season together for the first time. The Torch Bearers made just a change, with Ankit Mukherjee replacing Sarthak Golui, who is suspended.
No goals were achieved in the opening half, as the hosts ended the half without a shot on target. In the opening minute, Bruno Silva shot an effort from a distance that zipped just wide of the goal. Ten minutes after, Charis Kyriakou pushed his luck from range, but his attempt was gathered comfortably by Gurpreet Singh Sandhu.
A couple of minutes after the hour-mark, Roy Krishna was put clean through on goal with an effortless pass from Hernandez. The Fijian penetrated the box but grazed what would be BFC’s only notable possibility. In the 69th, the deadlock was ultimately broken. Sprinting towards his own goal on the left as the final man, Wangjam was under pressure from Mahesh and miskicked his backpass towards the goalkeeper.
Mahesh pounded on the loose ball and was one-on-one with the keeper, squaring it for Silva, who calmly drummed the ball in against his former side. A minute away from 90, Chhetri flicked the ball towards Krishna, who contrived to get past the keeper but failed to avoid Ivan Gonzalez’s sharp last-ditch tackle that took the ball away from him. Six minutes were added, but the Blues could not get past the visitors’ defence.
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The season’s second success for EB saw it leapfrog BFC in the ISL table and move to eighth. The Blues are placed ninth in the table, level by four points with Jamshedpur FC (JFC). The Torch Bearers return to Kolkata for their next contest to take on Odisha FC (OFC) next Friday. On Thursday, the Blues travel to the west coast to fight former champion Mumbai City FC (MCFC).
