East Bengal were held to a goal-less draw by Rajasthan United in a Durand Cup 2022 match at the Kishore Bharati Krirangan (KBK), here on Thursday.
Rajasthan who had got the better of ATK Mohun Bagan in their first match, produced another impressive result as they got a point against the other Kolkata giant on their own patch. For East Bengal, it was a similar story to their previous game where they failed to convert the chances that came their way and had to settle for a point.
The first opening came in the 15th minute when Aniket Jadhav sent in a dangerous cross in the box but it just evaded VP Suhair. Suhair then tested the Rajasthan goalkeeper Niraj Kumar with a shot from distance 12 minutes later but he was equal to the task.
Suhair had another chance to open the scoring in the 37th minute when he was fed inside the box by Tuhin Das but he could not keep his effort on target. The game remained deadlocked at 0-0 at the interval with East Bengal doing most of the attacking in the first half.
The Red and Gold brigade came really close to taking the lead in the 56th minute when Lalchungnunga hit the crossbar after some great work from Jadhav to send in his cross. East Bengal then had goalkeeper Kamaljit to thank as he saved a penalty from Rajasthan United’s Remsanga in the 61st minute.
With a quarter of the hour to play, Rajasthan United came close again through Martin Chaves whose free-kick flew narrowly wide. Rajasthan finished the game strongly but couldn’t find the winner as the points were shared.
East Bengal next face ATK Mohun Bagan in the Kolkata derby on Sunday.
(Inputs from IANS)