Shivalkar ensures airmen their first win

Mumbai, Dec 17 (UNI) A 62nd minute strike by Paresh Shivalkar gave Air India their first victory in a sixth round I-League match against Kolkata giants East Bengal at the Cooperage stadium here today.

Air India beat East Bengal by 1-0. With this win, the team moved to seven points from 6 matches, while East Bengal remained on seven points from an equal number of matches.

East Bengal were totally off-colour today as Air India had the better of exchanges with their defence manned by Nirmal Chetri and Amrit Pal Singh having an outstanding game.

Air India did have a few chances in the first half but good goal keeping by Subrata Pal denied them the lead.

East Bengal did have a chance at the goal towards the end of the first half when Alvito D'Souza took a free kick from just outside the box that went just wide off the mark.

After the change of ends, Air India started putting more pressure on the rival defence and the breakthrough goal came in the 62nd minute when V Shetty from the top of the box on the right side gave a cross pass to Paresh Shivalkar on the left flank and his powerful strike beat the goalkeeper Subroto Pal all ends up to give Air India the lead.

The airmen then defended well to maintain the advantage and at the end scored their first victory over the three times NFL champions.

UNI