East Bengal led twice only to throw away the advantage as Mohun Bagan Super Giant salvaged a 2-2 draw in the ISL-X derby at the Salt Lake Stadium on Saturday.
The first goal came in the third minute, but Bagan drew level in the 17th minute. Carles Cuadrat’s red-and-gold brigade were again ahead in the 55th minute but Bagan refused to give up and made it 2-2 in the 87th minute.
East Bengal should blame themselves for not recording their second derby win in 15 days. On both occasions, it was defender Lal Chungnunga who botched up.
First, he allowed Armando Sadiku to volley home and then slipped at the wrong time and Dimitri Petratos volleyed home. Defender Hijazi Maher also was in a benevolent mood as he failed to clear the ball after Chungnunga was left sprawling on the ground.
Before the ISL took a break in December, Cuadrat had managed to strengthen the defence as rivals found it difficult to score. But strangely on Saturday, time and again the East Bengal defence stuttered. They were lucky that Bagan could not capitalise on the mistakes. Once defender Mohamed Rakip could not deal with a centre from the right and Bagan’s Sadiku had a clear sight of the goal. In haste, he volleyed over.
East Bengal took the lead as early as in the third minute. Nishu Kumar from the left sent a centre and Ajay Chhetri stabbed it home before a lunging Brendan Hamill could clear the ball.