The Hindu : Sport / Football : East Bengal survives, Viva Kerala relegated

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East Bengal survives, Viva Kerala relegated

Principal Correspondent

KOZHIKODE: It may take another week to know who will win the title in the inaugural I-League football, but the two teams to be relegated were decided on Sunday.

East Bengal’s 3-1 win over Viva Kerala at the Corporation Stadium ensured that the Kolkata giant will stay, while the Kochi club is out of the next edition of India’s premier football league. Joining Viva is Salgaocar which held Dempo at Margao. Dempo is at the top of the table, along with Churchill Brothers.

Pal performs well

Viva had to win if it had to entertain any kind of hopes of survival, but that was not to be as it was let down by its forward line once more. A superb performance under the bar by the East Bengal custodian Subrata Pal made life more miserable for the Viva strikers.

Captain and Man of the Match Syed Rahim Nabi, Alvito D’Cunha and Edmilson Marques were the scorers for East Bengal, while Ebin Rose netted the host’s lone goal.

The match wasn’t as one-sided as the scoreline would suggest. If anything, it was Viva which got more chances, but once again its African strikers, Baba Tunde and Wisdom Abbey, failed to convert even one of them.

Viva had a flurry of raids from the outset, creating three chances inside the first 10 minutes. But it was the Kolkatans who drew the first blood, in the 20th minute, through Nabi, who headed home, from close, a D’Cunha free kick from just outside the box.

Ebin equalised for Viva in the injury time of the first half with a lovely strike, as his well-measured and precisely angled shot, from just inside the box, beat Subrata, for once; that goal was nicely set up by Viva captain James Singh and K.V. Lalu.

East Bengal regained the lead in the 57th minute when D’Cunha, after being fed by Nabi, put the ball past an advancing Viva ‘keeper M.V. Nelson.

Eight minutes later, Edmilson volleyed home another D’Cunha free kick.

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