East bengal defeat Port 2-0

Kolkata, Jul 30 (UNI) East Bengal opened their Premier League campaign with full points against Calcutta Port Trust (CPT) with a 2-0 win in their own backyard.

Initially, it looked easy for the holders as they got two goals quite early in the match.

Mehtab scored easily after playing one-two with an advancing Surya Bikash Chakraborty. A couple of minutes later, Edmilson received a long ball, again from Surya, and made no mistake. However, he did miss a few gilt-edged chances later in the 90-minute affair.

Snehasish Chakraborty and Surya deserve special mentions for keeping the ball supply constant, but Edmilson, who was outnumbered by the CPT defenders, was under strict vigil.

East Bengal never looked to combine well, except for patches particularly after the lemon break, but they did not falter clearing their first hurdle. Saumik Dey, Jayanta Sen, Mehtab Hussain and captain Chandan Das were seen moving quickly in the midfield.

With East Bengal getting the brace quite early, it was enough to pour water on the enthusiasm of CPT's young bunch.

UNI