It was all Ranjan Chaudhari’s men in the opening quarters as both Bikash Jairu and Willis Plaza were guilty of missing opportunities before Wedson Anselme’s shot from inside the box was parried away by an alert Lalawmpuia in the Aizawl goal. In what was otherwise an insipid performance from the I-League champions, Lalmuankima skied his shot at the hour mark when he had gotten clear off Jairu. After the half-time break, it was status quo with East Bengal doing all the attacking but failing to find the target. Badstubber to return to Bayern Mohammed Rafique wasted too much time dwelling on the ball after being played on by Plaza allowing Lalawmpuia to again come out and collect. Plaza was the guilty one in the 55th minute when he failed to connect onto a lovely ball by Cavin Lobo. As Plaza kept on missing chances galore, Lalawmpuia kept on saving the day as he parried away a header off a Cavin Lobo freekick. In the 69th minute, Plaza continued to flounder as he failed to beat the Aizawl goalkeeper one-on-one after a neat one two with Jairu and with only the goalie to beat. Robin Singh and Lalrindika Ralte’s introduction too failed to change the scoreline in favour of East Bengal as Aizawl held on to secure top spot in Group A with the Red and Golds second.
