Margao: Defending champions Salgaocar thrashed a 10-man East Bengal 4-0 in their 12th-round I-League clash at the Nehru Stadium on Thursday to maintain their perfect record against the Kolkata side in Fatorda for almost a decade. East Bengal have not won against Salgaocar since the 2001 National Football League.
Goals from Francis Fernandes, Ryuji Sueoka, Elijah Junior and Nicolau Colaco helped Salgaocar score a much needed victory.
The home side, who badly needed a win after a string of draws and losses, benefited as East Bengal were reduced to 10 men in the 16th minute after their influential midfielder and captain Mehtab Hossain was red-carded after receiving his second yellow card for a dangerous foul on Ryuji Sueoka.
Salgaocar, who started positively by playing the ball on the flanks, kept the rival defence under pressure with overhead crosses and took the lead in the 23rd minute. Defender Nicolau Colaco, playing his first match, sent a cross from the right into the box for Edeh Chidi, who back-headed it to Francis Fernandes. East Bengal defender Nirmal Chhetri tried to curtail Francis' attempt, but he controlled the ball and took a shot that found the net.
East Bengal looked better in the early part of the second half and were gearing up to carry the fight into the enemy camp, but Sueoka struck in the 68th minute to dampen their spirits.
Defender Thounanjam D Singh, who moved up on the right, sent a long through-pass to Sueoka, who sprinted down and on entering the box took a shot which keeper Sandip Nandy managed to block with his legs. However, Man-of-the-Match Sueoka managed to put the ball into the empty net off the rebound.
Salgaocar made two changes mid-way in second half, bringing in Marcus Mascarenhas and Elijah Junior Obagbemiro in place of Edeh Chidi and Ishfaq Ahmed. The move paid dividends as Obagbemiro found the net in the 85th minute off a back-pass from Marcus Mascarenhas.
With four minutes left in the match, Salgaocar were also reduced to 10, but not before they had killed off the contest, when defender Biswajit Saha got his second yellow card for a foul on Tolgay Ozbay.
With a minute left in the match, Nicolau Colaco rounded the tally when his goalmouth cross from the right was headed in by Nirmal Chettri to end the visitors' misery.
The win was a welcome relief for Salgaocar, who are now on 16 points from 12 matches to move into 8th place. East Bengal remained on fourth place with 23 points.
Meanwhile, a fracas broke out in the East Bengal dressing room, with the players on the verge of coming to blows after they lost to Salgaocar. The two players at the centre of the fracas were Australian striker Tolgay Ozbay and midfielder Hussain, with the former apparently blaming the latter for his side being reduced to 10 men and losing the match heavily.
That led to a heated argument between the two players, who almost came to blows, only to be separated by teammates.
Two chairs inside the dressing room were badly broken during the commotion, a Salgaocar official said. Salgaocar had to look after the logistics of the match as they were the home team.
"I can't confirm whether there was an actual fight among East Bengal players. But there was certainly commotion inside their dressing room. We heard shouting inside the East Bengal dressing room," the Salgaocar official said.
"Two chairs were badly broken. We look after the dressing room and other things as we are the host team," he said.
Incidentally, Ozbay was also involved in another ugly incident during East Bengal's 0-1 loss to Sporting Clube de Goa on December 5. He had beaten up a groundsman of the Nehru Stadium.
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