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I-League: Prayag Utd held by East Bengal

Prayag United SC 1-1 East Bengal Club

Prayag United SC 1-1 East Bengal Club

After the match in the Federation Cup finals played just over a month which was only decided in extra time Prayag United and Kingfisher East Bengal were again not been able to break the deadlock between themselves with the match ending 1-1 at Kolkata this afternoon.

Both teams were looking for their first win of the I-League 2011-12 but Prayag United started off the better side with a flurry of attacks at the start. They looked dangerous on a couple of occasions in the early part of the first half. Snehashish Dutta of Prayag United also headed the ball against the post midway through the first half off a Kayne Vincent cross.

Kingfisher East Bengal on the other hand starting with Alan Gow and Tolgay Ozbey upfront had their best chance of the half when Alan played a through ball to Tolgay but his shot was straight against the goalkeeper Abhijeet Mondol.

Prayag United’s Tulunga also had a shot well saved by East Bengal goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu in the first half.

Prayag United were rewarded for their attacking play early in the 2nd half when Yakubu Yusuf opened the scoring with his 121st goal in the National League/I-League.   It was a well taken goal off a long ball headed to him by Arnab Mondal. Yusuf Yakubu is currently the all time highest scorer.

East Bengal, however, attacked much more in the 2nd half as Trevor Morgan made 3 changes with Penn Orji, Baljit Singh Saini and Gurwinder Singh coming on. Alan Gow was pushed forward to play a more attacking role with Tolgay Ozbey.

Sanju Pradhan missed a goal scoring chance off a rebound in the box but made up for it late in the match when he played a through ball to Baljit Singh Sahni who had no problem in converting with a left footed shot in the 85th minute.

With both teams getting one point each neither were able to register their first win of the tournament and will have to wait until the next round of matches. Prayag United is currently on two points while Kingfisher East Bengal has registered just one point till now.

MATCH STATS AVAILABLE AT
http://www.chrispd.de/wordpress/2011/10/21/i-league-201112-results-stats/?match=13

(AIFF Press Release)