Three players received marching orders as title holders East Bengal continued their fine run to pulverize formidable Salgaocar Sports Club, Goa, 3-1 in an eighth National Football League match marred by frayed tempers at Kolkata on Sunday.
Star striker Baichung Bhutia stamped his class with a brace, with Subhas Chakraborty netting the other goal for the winners who have now boosted their points tally to 24 from 12 matches. Salgaocar remained on 17 points from 12 encounters.
Nigerian Bello Razzak was the sole scorer for the visitors in the Salt Lake stadium game which saw an East Bengal domination.
The red and yellow brigade, who have been on song lately with back-to-back wins over Singapore's Geylang FC and Negeri Sembilan of Malaysia in the AFC Cup, shot into the lead as early as the sixth minute following a Bhutia-Mike Okoro duet.
Bhutia passed on to the Nigerian whose booming shot came off the chest of Salgaocar custodian Rajat Ghosh Dastidar and the Sikkimese pushed home.
Even as thunderous celebrations broke out in the galleries, there was an unseemly incident on the ground as East Bengal stopper Dipak Mandal and Salgaocar's Felix Ibrebru were seen jostling off the ball near the midfield. Referee S Kurien flashed the red card at both the offenders.
Salgaocar, who had a tough time resisting the sustained rival pressure, drew level in the 40th minute when Gurinder Pal Singh's corner was floated into the box by Dharamjit Singh and East Bengal goalkeeper Sangram Mukherjee missed the flight of the ball. Razzak, standing nearby, headed in.
But East Bengal regained the lead within barely three minutes, thanks to a brilliant strike from Bhutia. Brazilian Cristiano Junior essayed a forward pass to Baichung, who directed the ball in a flash into the net with an on-the-run lob over the head of Ghosh Dastidar.
Leading 2-1 at the break, East Bengal continued to press on the attack mode, and consolidated their position in the 53rd minute as Ghosh Dastidar once again faltered in collecting an Okoro freekick and Chakraborty let loose a snap shot which found its way into the goal.
The goal snuffed out whatever resistance was left in Salgaocar and the locals had a merry run on the turf, but could not increase the margin as they missed several gilt-edged opportunities.
The match saw yet another unsavory incident in the 71st minute. Bhutia, who was moving up into the opponent territory, met with a challenge from Razzak. But as the Indian skipper was about to speed past the Nigerian, the latter rained a blow on his face.
The referee issued Razzak marching orders for the offence, reducing Salgaocar to nine men for the last 19 minutes.
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