Diego Mauricio continued his advantageous type, bagging his second brace for Odisha FC in as many video games because it put an finish to its four-game winless streak to maneuver into fifth place within the Indian Super League on Saturday.
Odisha FC fell behind early within the first half on the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar, however gave its house assist a lot to cheer about because it outscored East Bengal FC for the rest of the sport.
Cleiton Silva, who’s now the main goalscorer of the season, put East Bengal FC in entrance within the tenth minute after capitalising on Odisha FC goalkeeper Amrinder Singh’s mistake.
Alex Lima performed a lofted go over the defence on the precise facet, and Amrinder rushed out indecisively to search out himself stranded. Silva confirmed no hesitation in chipping the ball from a good angle and put the guests in entrance.
Odisha FC practically levelled the rating minutes later, when Thoiba Singh picked up the ball from Mauricio as he drove into the field, and located Jerry Mawihmingthanga unmarked on the far submit. The ahead couldn’t preserve his steadiness as he pushed the ball vast of the far submit of an open aim.
But the hosts didn’t have to attend for too lengthy after that, with Raynier Fernandes whipping a cross into the six-yard field from a nook and discovering no resistance from the East Bengal FC. He discovered Mauricio a number of yards in entrance of the goalkeeper, and the striker caught his proper foot out to attain.
On both facet of the half-time whistle, Odisha FC then discovered the targets to place the fixture to mattress. The first of these was a fortuitous one for Nandhakumar Sekar, who was trying to cross the ball in from the left and ended up slicing it together with his left foot. The ball saved stepping into its authentic path and finally cleared East Bengal FC goalkeeper Suvam Sen to land behind the online.
Not lengthy after the second half started, Mauricio picked up a second aim. Fernandes was the supplier for him as soon as once more, pushing ahead from the precise facet of central midfield earlier than slipping it into the channel for Mauricio on the precise facet of the field.
The striker picked up the ball, saved his composure with the shortage of a press from the defence, and managed to dink the ball into the close to submit previous Sen’s left shoulder.
East Bengal FC produced a number of probabilities from there on, making an attempt to throw gamers ahead in numbers, and got here shut on a number of events however by no means with any conviction.
In the eighty fifth minute, Ankit Mukherjee managed to place the ball previous Amrinder’s close to submit after a scramble within the field, however the effort was flagged offside. That was the most important spotlight of a interval of end-to-end soccer as the sport headed in the direction of the ultimate whistle, the place neither group managed to present different something substantial to fret about.
Eventually, Odisha FC picked up the three factors that put them forward of FC Goa within the playoffs race. It travels to Bengaluru on January 14 so as to add to its tally. East Bengal FC, alternatively, stays in ninth place with a sport in hand over Bengaluru FC, and returns house on January 13 to host Jamshedpur FC.