Silva ensures win for East Bengal – Times of India

Kolkata: Cleiton Silva is proving to be Emami East Bengal’s man of the moment. The player’s superb freekick three minutes into added time fetched the side a thrilling 2-1 win over Bengaluru FC at the Salt Lake Stadium here on Friday. That was Silva’s second goal of the match, having put his team ahead in the 39th minute, calmly slotting home a penalty. In between these two strikes, Javi Herandez of Bengaluru slotted home Roy Krishna assist in the 55th minute to ensure that the excitement remained till the end.
With this, the home team completed a double against the team from the southern part of the country, having beaten them earlier this season. Silva, incidentally, once again proved to be a thorn for his former club. In the previous match between the two sides too, Silva had put east Bengal ahead.
The penalty came after Suhair VP’s run on the right found Naorem Mahesh Singh fumbling before his hand got in the way. Silva hardly looked stressed while converting.
Bengaluru kept on the pressure looking to equalise, with Sunil Chhetri, Parag Shrivas, Pablo Perez, Roy Krishna all looking dangerous. Corner-kicks tested the east Bengal defence Krishna even had a chance in the open play, but could not make it count. They went into the break with East Bengal holding on to the lead.
Krishna’s run on the right 10 minutes into the second half opened up the East Bengal defence, allowing Herandez to restore parity. Even though there was disappointment in the stands, the tension on the field was palpable.
Both the sides got their chances to move ahead, but failed to do so. Chhetri in the 73rd minute and Silva in the 83rd came close, but the deadlock remained.
Finally, when a draw seemed inevitable, Silva produced a gem of a free-kick that went into the top left corner. With these three points, East Bengal moved up to the eighth place. Bengaluru dropped to ninth.