East Bengal and Sporting Clube de Goa settle for a draw

Kolkata, Feb 23 (UNI) East Bengal and Sporting Clube de Goa played out a 1-1 draw in their final round match of the I League today to make sure that the table remained unchanged.

East Bengal finished on the sixth spot with 19 points from 18 matches like the Goan outfit. But the red-gold outfit got their position because of their better goal difference.

It was the Goan side that went into the lead 22 minutes into the match.

A Lawrence Adjei centre saw Junior head the ball towards the goal only to see Subrata Paul bring off a spectacular save. But the ball ricocheted off the crosspiece to land at the foot of Joseph Perriera, who slotted home.

The sides took the lemon break with the home team trailing, despite Alvito D'cunha and Sayed Rahim Nabi keeping the Sporting defence busy most of the time.

After the change of sides, the hosts further stepped up the pressure and in between 54 and 56th minute the red-gold forced consecutive corners.

The goal came off the second corner when Nabi headed home a wicked ball from Alvito that dipped near the goalmouth.

Sayed Rahim Nabi was adjudged Man of the Match. In his new avatar as striker, Nabi had not only given a superlative performance, but had raised hope of a red-gold revival under his banner.

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