Kolkata: It was the battle between Mohun Bagan’s star midfielder Joseba Beitia’s skill & East Bengal’s Spanish defender Marti Crespi’s defencive quality. Bagan’s midfield and forward line played brilliantly and on the flipside of it Red & Gold defence was rock solid. It was the only story for this season’s first Kolkata Derby as Mohun Bagan & East Bengal played out a goalless draw in a crucial encounter of Calcutta Football League 2019 at the Salt Lake Stadium on Sunday. Alejandro missed his hat-trick winning chance in Derby on the other side Mohun Bagan’s new Head Coach Kibu Vicuna failed to win his first Kolkata Derby.
In the 16th minute of the game Mohun Bagan got a great chance. A header from Fran Gonzalez went just beside the bar. It was a great ball by Joseba Beitia. On the 22nd minute of the game Ronaldo Oliviera gave a great ball to Pintu Mahata from which Pintu gave a perfect ball to Ronaldo again inside the box but Ronaldo missed the header. Suher VP got the easiest chance of the game on the 43rd minute of the game when he hit the ball straight into the hands of East Bengal goalie Ralte.
In the first half Naorem, Chullova & Beitia all tried to break the defence of East Bengal but they failed as Marti Crespi was there like a pillar of East Bengal defence. With young Mehtab Singh he played some outstanding football at East Bengal defence.
It was an end-to-end action in the second half with East Bengal pressing the attack but a goal eluded them as well.
In the 59th minute, Ralte found himself in the close range but could not connect well with Debjit Majumder out of position.
Moments later, Mohun Bagan had their best chance in the first hour’s play but Suhair missed the target just in front of the goal.
It was Ashutosh Mehta who gave a fine low cross from the right which needed a simple tap-in but Suhair squandered the sitter.
With 20 minutes left on the clock, East Bengal coach Alejandro Menendez brought on his key players, Jaime Santos and Bidyasagar Singh, but they too failed to make any impact.
In the second half stoppage time, Beitia once again set it up with a curling cross but substitute Alexander Romario failed to make it count in what was their last chance.