KOLKATA: Kolkata giants East Bengal would look to bounce back from their back-to-back defeats and return to winning ways when they face defending champions Minerva Punjab FC in their home I-League match on Tuesday.
East Bengal began the league with consecutive wins — against Neroca FC and Shillong Lajong — in their away matches but then suffered defeats against table-toppers Chennai City FC and Aizawl FC and they would look to arrest the losing streak.
Minerva Punjab FC are with eight points to their kitty from two wins and equal number of losses and draws. East Bengal head coach Alejandro Garcia would be looking to organise his defence line which has quite often allowed the opponents to breach into the danger zone this season. “After two losses we want to win a match. Our priority will be to win tomorrow. Minerva is a good team. Their style of play is very different and to defend against them is very difficult at times. But we are playing at our home and we have to play better than them,” said Garcia.
Jobby Justin and Spaniard Enrique Esqueda have been the top performers for East Bengal this season, having scored three goals each. Both of them have shown immense strength and prowess, creating a lot of trouble for the opponents and can prove to be quite threatening on their day. Minerva Punjab have still not been able to find a compact attacking unit as evident from the fact that they have just scored five goals from six games. A major concern for the Punjab club has been the unavailability of their star striker Yu Kobi who has not been able to start a single game due to a prolonged injury lay-off. “Last year was last year. It is a new team this year and a new season as well. We have started from the scratch and we are trying to improve with every game,” head coach Paul Munster said. “It is still early and we are taking one match at a time. The league is very tight and surely, East Bengal will look to grab all three points tomorrow just as the way we want to.” The current strike force of Nigerian duo of Donatus Edafe and Philip Njoku have somehow not clicked so far to wreak havoc on their opponents. (PTI)
