ISL 2026: East Bengal and FC Goa Play Out a Drab Draw

Image by Debjoy Biswas/Pixel Sports

Following their bodyblow defeat against Jamshedpur FC, East Bengal were looking to bounce back in title challenge. With two wins in their last two, Manolo Marquez's men were looking to make it a hattrick of wins. East Bengal and FC Goa locked horns under these two very different pretexts. In team news, Mahesh found himself making the first start of the season. Jay Gupta was dropped to put Chungnunga in the LB position. Manolo went in with an unchanged starting 11.

The match progressed in a scrappy manner from the beginning. Apart from a few stray set piece opportunities, both the teams failed to dominate either the midfield or the attacking third. Mahesh was looking rather tired in the middle. Miguel's long range freekick in the 11th minute looked promising but missed the target.

Akash Sangwan put in a dangerous cross in the 13th minute that was blocked out for a corner by Anwar Ali. But the best chance of the first half an hour came in the 27th minute through a combination play of Mahesh and Bipin who put in a decisive ball for Yousef. It was an open net which Yousef should have found on the volley. But Hrithik Tiwari was undisturbed.

The FC Goa strategy looked to be depending on cancelling out the influence of Miguel. He was consistently being marked by Sahil Tavora and closely followed by the other midfielders. This completely negated any attacking edge for East Bengal.

For the attack, Goa was mainly depending on counter attacks. One such counter found Boris completely in the open down the right. He passed the ball onto Bryson in the box. A timid shot was blocked off with his body by Prabsukhan Gill.

Goa was looking increasingly more dangerous in the counter and East Bengal defense looked more vulnerable every passing minute. Two quick counter attacks almost opened the score for Goa but for two bad misses. First Ishan Pandita could not place the ball past Gill from a Drazic through ball. Then Uda ta found a golden opportunity from a Gill miss pass. But he pulled the ball wide of the post. Shortly afterwards, Boris Singh found the best opportunity from a Udanta Singh layoff but the cross bar came to the rescue of East Bengal this time. All this happened within a 3 minute span between 38th and the 41st minute.

Unable to break the defense through passes and crosses, Rashid finally decided to try his luck from 40 yards out in the 44th minute. And this almost worked. Hrithik Tiwari almost conceded a bowler. The ball shaved off his palm and bounced off the crossbar for a corner. Tiwari would be thanking his stars. But the score remained goalless going into the half time at the end of a closely contested half that had very little real spark with both the teams struggling to create too many real opportunities. But Goa have surely had the better chances and would feel themselves unlucky not to have taken the lead in the first half.

The haphazard nature of the match kept persisting in the second half as well with both the teams looking scrappy in the attacking half. East Bengal were atleast looking to create some opportunities. Goa looked rather content in waiting on their laurels for some chances in the counter. Miguel kept attempting stray long range shots like the one in 53rd minute. But Hrithik Tiwari had no problems in gathering them. The lack of attacking width on the left was making East Bengal suffer.

A frustrated Oscar Bruzon finally decided to make his first couple of changes in the 55th minute. Mahesh and Edmund were taken off to bring Vishnu and Anton Sojberg on. Vishnu would now operate on the left wing as Bipin shifted to the right. Anton slotted in the midfield in the centre of the park.

The lack of attacking creativity and intent however persisted into the second quarter of the second half as the match seemed to be going slower by the minute.

Miguel tried his luck again from more than 30 yards away in the 65th minute. But the ball once again went way off the mark. The home crowd now started growing impatient while making their discontent known trough shouts and groans.

Anwar Ali this time tried his luck from further away in the 68th minute. The result was far too familiar with how the match had player out so far.

Goa finally made a double change in the 69th minute by bringing on Raynair Fernandes and Abdul Rabeeh to replace Brison and Ishan Pandita. They had managed to keep the match goalless till the 70th minute. With reinforced attacking energy, Manolo would surely love to see his side now push for the full three points if possible. East Bengal on the other hand would hope for a good chance or two to fall on their path.

It nearly was the case on the 71st minute when a surging run by Vishnu found him in a lot of space down the left. The minus ball found Yousef whose shot was sternly blocked by Sandesh Jhingan.

The deadlock suited the purpose of Goa who could now seal it like Jamshedpur FC in the last match in the dying minutes. It almost happened in the 76th minute through the newly introduced Rabeeh and Raynair combination. Rabeeh took on both Anton and Nunga on the left two go past them and pass it on the Raynair inside the box. The powerful shot flew narrowly above the crossbar much to the relief of the entire defense line.

The glaring lack of mobility on the left was finally addressed by Oscar in the 78tg minute by replacing Nunga with Jay Gupta, the actual Left Back in the squad.

Miguel, the prime target man tried another volley in the 80th minute. This time it was much closer. The goalkeeper was left stranded as he saw the ball go past the cross bar.

An 83rd minute attack started from Anwar Ali's diagonal through to Vishnu who went on a diagonal run inside the box to cut the ball across the six yard box for Bipin. The lay off looped above the head of Yousef into the palm of Hrithik Tiwari. The resultant was the same, but finally there was some fluency in forward movement shown by the East Bengal team.

Taking on one's luck from long range was now spreading like a wildfire across the East Bengal attacking line. Bipin this time tried his luck from 30 yards out in the 87th minute. The ball went wider by the second.

Oscar pulled his final trick by bringing on David in place of Bipin in the 89th minute. Manolo made a change of his own by bringing on Daniel to replace Drazic. East Bengal meanwhile conceded their first yellow card of the match in the 90th minute when Vishnu pulled Rabeeh back cynically to stop a Goa counter attack.

With the score goalless in the regulation time, the match went into 5 minutes of added time where East Bengal kept on pushing. Rashid gained a freekick 30 yards away from the goal on the 92nd minute. This led to series of near misses and a couple of penalty shouts inside the box. East Bengal failed to put away any clear shots in the process. But the entire East Bengal bench put in a huge shout for penalty that resulted in a yellow card for Oscar. The Rashid shot was blocked with his hand infront of the body by Travora. The debate would go long into the night. But the match ended without any more action and both the teams locked in a drably played out draw.