East Bengal maul apart HAL

After coming back from a hard fought derby that went against their favor, the red and gold brigade put a spirited show and mauled HAL’s hapless defense by scoring a huge 8-1 win. Making a comeback, Aussie striker Tolgay Ozbey notched up four goals, defender Uga Okpara braced with a brace, with strikers Robin Singh and Baljit Saini filling up the rest.

EB's men - cause for our destruction

Few quick attacks and East Bengal struck the right chord. 8 minutes into the game, keeper Amar Deb fumbled from a feeble back pass from skipper Femi Adeola, latching quickly onto the lapse, striker Robin Singh placed the ball straight to the goal.

After another 8 minutes, Hamza earned a penalty for his team after Robert Lalthama tripped him inside the penalty box. Hamza made no mistake that helped HAL to restore parity. 

East Bengal raided HAL defense repeatedly which was nothing but nerves. Uga Okpara plainly toyed with this defense and scored two goals in a gap of 10 minutes.  

Come second half, and Tolgay was just waiting for his share of action. His trademark running down the flank always troubled HAL full backs. However, this time, defense could barely cope with his pace and in no time he scored his hat trick. 

Baljit Saini joined the party with a goal within a minute replacing Sanju Pradhan. The 8^th goal came from Robin’s cross - Tolgay, coming from behind a HAL defender, sweetly timed his jump with an accurate header and scored his 4^th goal of the match. 

Post match, a visibly elated coach Trevor James Morgan said, “Great response from the boys after coming from a loss. We could’ve added few more, but I’m not complaining.” Also, stated that HAL had a nightmarish time in controlling Tolgay’s power and pace.