Kolkata: CFL defending champions East Bengal registered an emphatic 5-1 victory over Peerless FC to win their third match in a row in the Kolkata tournament.
While Willis Plaza and Gabriel got their names on the scoresheet, scoring a goal each, the star for the Red and Gold brigade was Surabuddin Mollick who registered his first hattrick for the defending champions in this competition.
The best chance to open the scoring came in the 10th minute but foreign recruit Willis Plaza failed to net home a header. The game was stopped at the 12th minute because a part of the ground was water-logged due to the rains.
Plaza however made the most of another goal-scoring opportunity when he netted his first goal for the Kolkata giants in this competition after a wonderful cross from Mahmoud Al-Amna.
For Peerless FC, Rahim Nabi scored a wonderful goal to level the scores as both the teams headed to the break with the scoreline at 1-1.
In the 57th minute, Ralte was replaced by Surabuddin Mollick and four minutes later, Gabriel was brought in place of VP Suhair. This change proved to be fruitful for the champions as Gabriel got his name on the scoresheet with a beautifully finished goal in the 70th minute.
Four minutes later, Surabuddin got into the act as well as he netted home a beautiful corner from Gabriel. He scored once again two minutes later to take the scoreline to take it to 4-1 in favour of Khalid Jamil’s men.
The final goal of the match came in the 92nd minute when Surabuddin completed his hattrick to make it 5-1 for East Bengal when he slipped one in after a Gabriel beautiful cross to Samad.
Surabuddin thus becomes the second player for East Bengal to register a hattrick in the league after VP Suhair, who had achieved a similar feat in their first match against NBP Rainbow.
Despite the conditions being muddy, East Bengal hardly faced problems while playing as they had practiced under such conditions and undoubtedly Khalid Jamil would be one happy man after his side made a statement, winning their third match on the trot in the competition.