Panchkula: Cavin Lobo revisited time with a 60th minute stunner, reminiscent of one of the two goals he had scored against FC Goa for Atletico De Kolkata in the inaugural edition of the Indian Super League (ISL).
His wonder goal that day parried the Kolkata franchise past the finishing line and on Tuesday, the Goan not just helped East Bengal to a 1-0 win over title rivals Minerva Punjab but also kept this season’s I-League alive. The victory narrowed down the gap to just three points at the top, with the Red and Golds on 26 points after 14 games.
Minerva Punjab from the same no of matches stand on 29 points, one clear of second-placed Neroca FC.
Both sides had looked a pale shadow of themselves until then missing a host of chances, fighting in a pool of mud. Persistent rain for two days meant the Tau Devi Lal Stadium was nowhere of the ground it was supposed to be for this epic title clash and both the teams were forced to play the long way unable to string a series of short-passes together.
The goal too was a long-ranger and one that defined that why the 29 year-old Lobo was a blue-eye of every coach in his prime. Al-Amnah, quiet all evening found the midfielder with a wonderful back-heel and Lobo finished of the move rifling it into goal after a touch more.
Minerva would not have sensed that prior to the match and hence chose to bodyguard Katsumi Yusa who was deployed in the central-park, to create opportunities. Every time the Japanese was on the ball, he always had two defenders ready to tackle him down. The home side looked contend to play-out a draw.
But Lobo’s goal at the hour-mark forced coach Khogen Singh into replacing his goalkeeper Rakshit Dagar for Kiran Limbu. “We wanted to guard our goal post. We replaced Rakshit because we felt we would concede more and it would be difficult to equalize; therefore, we trusted Kiran more,” Singh side later.
Minerva’s new wonder-kid Chencho Gyeltshen just like Katsumi, was kept quiet all evening but the ‘Bhutanese Ronaldo’ broke loose and soon as the ‘Warriors’ conceded and could have well successfully done so, had William Opoku managed a tap-in.
Gyeltshen had ran clear of East Bengal defender Arnab Mondal and found Opoku with a delicate cross but the Ghanaian missed a sitter as East Bengal players began celebrating.
But with the title race once again burst open both Khalid Jamil (East Bengal coach) and Singh stressed that the “future matches will be nothing less than do-or-die.”