Kolkata: Bengal thrashed Orissa 3-0 to cement their place in the final round of the 70th Santosh trophy at Kalyani. Goals from Mumtaz Akhtar, Dibyendu Duary and Narhari Shrestha sealed the deal for Bengal.
In the first half Bengal looked pretty ordinary missing quite a few chances. Orissa too had some chances but could not get the better off Priyant Singh. The score line remained goalless at the end of the first half.
The score liner could have been different if Mumtaz Akhtar and Dibyendu Duary would have utilized those chances.
In the second half, Bengal looked hungry for goals putting in a lot of effort . The wait did not last too long for the Bengal boys as Mumtaz Akhtar gave the lead to Bengal through a penalty in 76th minute of the match.
To increase the goal margin Bengal coach, Aloke Mukherjee made a tactical change by bringing in Narhari Shrestha in place of Imran Khan who looked quite ordinary today.
In the 80th minute of the match, Bengal got the second goal from Dibyendu Duary.
Bengal nailed the last pin in the coffin of Sikkim in the 87 minutes from a blinder off Narhari Shreshtha.
At the end of the match Aloke Mukherjee, the Bengal coach stood by his players though they missed a few chances. He later quoted as saying, ”My team’s plus point is they can run well through the 90 minutes. Opposition looked tired and we grabbed the opportunity in the second half.”
The final round of the 70th Santosh Trophy commences from March 1 at Nagpur. The groups are yet to be decided.