Nedo Turkovic cancels Katsumi Yusa's opener as Neroca, East Bengal split points in I-League

Imphal, December 30: Neroca FC and giants East Bengal on Saturday (December 30) played out a 1-1 draw in the I-League at the Khuman Lampak main Stadium in Imphal.

Although Katsumi Yusa drew the first blood for the visitors in the 12th minute, Nedo Turkovic lit up the stadium in the 89th stadium, having smacked the equaliser for the Gift Raikhan-coached team to split the pie with the table-toppers East Bengal.

Both teams started on a cautious note and put in more effort to hold their own half. But in the 11th minute, Trinidad and Tobago-born striker Willis Deon Plaza went through the right side of the box and unleashed a defence-scathing pass to Japanese midfielder Katsumi, who did no mistake to volley it home to silent the 28,000 strong crowd at the Khuman Lampak Stadium.

Eduardo is today's Hero of the Match, thanks to his gritty performance to avert the super-agile @NerocaFC attackers.#HeroILeague #NFCvKEB pic.twitter.com/quKQnG3EQP

— Hero I-League (@ILeagueOfficial) December 30, 2017

The first half belonged to East Bengal, who outplayed the hosts by adopting an aggressive approach. Though Neroca FC had a few good chances, they lacked the finesse inside the box.

In the 28th minute of the match, Khalid Jamil introduced Md Rafique, who netted a magical goal in his last outing withdrawing Prakash Sarkar. Neroca FC, on the other hand, to instill more vigour in the attacking third brought in Nedo Turkovic at the expense of Israilov Akhlidin in the first half.

Anybody who saw the tactical and technical battle between @NerocaFC & @eastbengalfc in the I-League today would stop comparing the league's quality with a relatively skewed & imbalanced ISL. AIFF really need to realise what a gem they have in the I-League & preserve it. #NFCvKEB

— Debayan Sen (@debayansen) December 30, 2017

After the change-over, Neroca FC were looking more hungry for the equaliser and the Orange outfit kept the Red & Golds defenders on their toes throughout. Their best chance came in the 60th minute when a corner from Saran Singh was well-timed by Fabien Vorbe at the goal-mouth but eventually, he failed to convert it into a goal.

Finally, the moment of madness came for the Imphal-base side when Nedo Turkovic found a ball near left part of the 18-yard box and volleyed it past Luis Barreto to send the crowd into a delirium.

Hi! Due to unavoidable circumstances, the #HeroILeague match between Neroca FC and East Bengal is unavailable for telecast on our network. You can catch the action on @hotstartweets, here: https://t.co/EfNaqAAEz7

— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) December 30, 2017

East Bengal are now confirmed to finish the year 2017 at the top with 14 points from 7 matches, whereas Neroca FC are at the third spot having bagged three points less from 6 matches.

East Bengal will fly to New Delhi to face Indian Arrows on the Second day of 2018 and Neroca FC will host the youngsters three days later.

Source: AIFF Media