Hero of the Match Anthony Wolfe netted a second half brace as Sporting Clube de Goa drew 2-2 with East Bengal Club in an entertaining Hero I-League encounter, at Saltlake Stadium, Kolkata on Saturday. East Bengal led 1-0 at the interval through a goal by the I-League’s current top goal scorer Ranti Martins Soleye.

East Bengal took the lead on the half hour mark, when Milan Susak played an ambitious long ball forward from the defence which picked out Ranti Martins Soleye. Ranti wonderfully controlled the ball before blasting it into the back of the net.

East Bengal made a double substitution at half-time bringing on Arnab Mondal and Harmanjot Singh Khabra in place of Mohammed Rafique and Raju Eknath Gaikwad who had picked up a yellow card just before the breather. Sporting Goa also made a change, bringing in Victorino Fernandes for Beevan D’Mello.

Sporting Goa started to dominate early on but it was East Bengal who increased their lead after Ranti Martins Soleye curled in a beautiful free kick from the edge of the box, to score his second of the game and his 12th goal of the season.

Sporting Goa made a substitution bringing on new signing Marcus Mascarenhas for another debutant Mahmoud Al-Amna. They now had fresh legs on either wing with Victorino and Marcus who provided plenty of pace to put their opponents on the back foot.

Sporting Goa continued to pile on the pressure and they were rewarded when a looping ball fell nicely in the danger area for Anthony Wolfe. Wolfe took a snap shot and it got a slight touch of an East Bengal defender before entering the net.

Sporting Goa carried on growing in confidence and probing further afield. Odafe who was being marked tightly, managed to find some space and his cross was met by Victorino whose shot looked like it was entering the net, before Wolfe tapped it in on the goal line to make sure and draw the Flaming Oranje level.

In the closing exchanges, Sporting Goa continued to maraud forward but could not find the winner and in the end both teams had to be content with a point each.

Sporting Goa has now collected four points from nine outings while East Bengal move up to 13 points from eight matches.