ISL 2022 - 23: Cleiton Silva's Late Goal Gives East Bengal 1- 0 Win Over Kerala Blasters

Cleiton Silva's lone goal gave East Bengal FC a 1-0 victory over Kerala Blasters on Friday at the Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan, giving them their first-ever victory in the Indian Super League (ISL). The Brazilian goal gave Stephen Constantine's team its second home victory of the year in the 77th minute. After Mobashir Rahman was dismissed in the 94th minute, the hosts concluded the game with 10 men. Four changes were made to the starting lineup for the hosts. Lalchungnunga, who had been suspended, was replaced by Ankit Mukherjee. Ivan Gonzalez was replaced in defence by Sarthak Golui, Jordan O'Doherty was replaced in midfield by Alex Lima, while Jake Jervis and Cleiton Silva made their debuts up front as Sumeet Passi was benched. The guests appeared satisfied with their performance the previous week, when Ivan Vukomanovic started with an intact starting lineup and benched newcomer Danish Farooq.Rahul KP's free header from Adrian Luna's corner into the box presented the opening opportunity of the game, but Kamaljit Singh stopped it before VP Suhair cleared the ball off the line. Rahul got another chance just after that, in the following minute. The ball was sliced across the box into his path by Dimitrios Diamantakos this time, but the winger missed it.

Three minutes before halftime, Jervis flicked on Naorem Mahesh's cross from the left side toward Suhair at the far post. The winger slid the ball in, but the goal was disallowed because Suhair was flagged for being offside. Moments after Karanjit Singh made a spectacular double save to deny Cleiton Silva in first-half stoppage time, the East Bengal players yelled for a penalty. Suhair's glancing header from the next corner almost missed the far post.Hormipam Ruivah's backpass from Harmanjot Khabra was intercepted by Mahesh only seconds into the second half, who then squared it to Silva. However, Silva was unable to do any harm because the youthful center-back recovered in time to thwart the Brazilian as he sold a dummy to the goalkeeper. Mahesh ran down the left wing before cutting the pass back across the goal face in the 77th minute to break the scoreless tie. Before reaching Silva, the low ball took a deflection and a save, but Silva was quick to nudge it in before Farooq could put a boot through it.East Bengal played solid defence to preserve their unblemished record but concluded the match with 10 men after Rahman received a second caution for a challenge in the last seconds of the second half.East Bengal had the ideal momentum to build on before their next match against NorthEast United on February 8 since the victory brought them to within three points of Chennaiyin FC. Even after playing one more game, Kerala Blasters only lead ATK Mohun Bagan by one point.