East Bengal lose 2-3 to Al Qadsia
By IANSWednesday, March 24, 2010
KOLKATA - East Bengal went down fighting 2-3 to Kuwait’s Al Qadsia to suffer their third defeat in as many games in Group D of the AFC Cup here Wednesday.
The city side paid the penalty for missed chances, as Al Qadsia logged full points overcoming humid conditions at the Salt Lake Stadium.
The visitors went ahead through Bader Almotawa only into the second minute of the game. East Bengal goalkeeper Priyant Singh thwarted medio Jehad Al Hussain’s left-footer, but Bader pounced on the rebound to slam home.
The scoreline became 2-0 in the 20th minute with dangerman Jehad scoring off a Khalaf Almutairi’s pass.
However, East Bengal fought back within four minutes to get the reducer as striker Subhas Singh exploited a misunderstanding between Al Qadsia custodian Ali Al Rasheed and Nohayr Alshamari to push the ball in.
The Kuwaitis led 2-1 at halftime, but Ghanaian Yousif Yakubu drew level soon after with a fine header.
East Bengal kept up the pressure, and got three gilt-edged chances, but Mehtab Hossain, Yousif Yakubu and substitute Alvito D’Cunha failed to finish off.
The goal happened at the other end six minutes from time with Bader utilized plenty of vacant spaces to put the ball home.
