East Bengal FC on Friday kept a fourth consecutive clean sheet as they played a goalless draw against Odisha FC at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata in the Indian Super League tonight.
The away side held two-thirds of the possession but fell short of creating proper goal-scoring opportunities, as they could only muster eight shots compared to the 13 taken by the home side. East Bengal even hit three of them on target, as compared to the only one by Odisha FC.
For the visitors, the opportunity to get ahead in the game came early in the ninth minute itself. Lalthathanga Khawlhring, fondly called as Puitea, spotted a disarranged East Bengal FC and played a pass for Isak Vanlalruatfela at the centre outside the 18-yard box.
The 22-year-old burst through the home side’s defensive unit, but his shot had no power and rolled comfortbaly into the goalkeeper’s hands.
Roy Krishna had a good opportunity to give Odisha the lead in the 24th minute. Amey Ranawade whipped in a good cross from the right flank and Krishna sneaked in between the two East Bengal central defenders only to send his header to the side netting.
East Bengal and their wingers and midfielders came to the fore gradually. Nandhakumar Sekar initiated one such move in the 27th minute, wide from the right flank. The winger, who had scored twice in this ground against NorthEast United FC earlier this month, broke inside the box as an onrushing Cleiton Silva awaited his delivery in the middle. However, Nandha took matters in his own hands, taking on the trio of Ahmed Jahouh, Carlos Delgado, and Mourtada Fall, before shooting at the near post which was duly saved by Amrinder Singh.
The Odisha FC custodian was called up to action again in the 48th minute, with the duo of Borja Herrera and Jose Antonio Pardo coming together to enable the latter to test the goalkeeper from distance.
Both sides had a couple of half chances in the second half but couldn’t convert any of them. There was controversy towards the end of a match as the home side were denied a penalty on two occasions.
In the 89th minute, Javier Siverio tried his luck from the edge of the box only for his shot to be blocked seemingly by Mourtada Fall’s arm. In the 92nd minute, Jishnu was brought down in the box by Jerry Lalrinzuala with the latter tugging at Jishnu’s shirt.
With that draw, Odisha FC stay in the fifth spot while East Bengal FC stay seventh in the points table.
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