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Riding on a gritty defensive display, Pailan Arrows held Kingfisher
East Bengal to a goalless draw in a crucial I-League encounter at the Salt Lake Stadium.
This was Pailan’s fourth consecutive draw in the ongoing edition and they now move to 6 points from 10 matches while East Bengal move to 20 points from 10 matches.
For East Bengal, the trio of Uga Ukpara, Penn Orji and Tolgay Ozbey took the field from the kick-off, dismissing reports that they would not recover in time for the match.
In the first half, Tolgay Ozbey came close to scoring thrice but couldn’t convert. His first shot early in the half went straight to rival goalkeeper Naveen Kumar while a header halfway through the half was also foiled by Naveen.
Tolgay’s best chance came late in the half when he broke free of the defence from the half line but was denied by Pailan stopper Gurtej Singh in the box.
Changing over, East Bengal continued to attack but couldn’t penetrate in the real sense. The red-and-the-gold did make use of the wings but couldn’t pierce the final nail.
In injury time, Mehtab Hosain was lucky not to be red-carded when he head-butted Pailan midfielder Sehnaj Singh off the ball. Both Sehnaj and Mehtab were flashed the yellow card. Naveen Kumar was named the Man-of-the-match.
