Disappointing draw for East Bengal to end the year; Questions remain on poor quality of refereeing in ISL 2024-25
East Bengal FC ends the year with a disappointing draw against Hyderabad FC.
After winning two out of three consecutive games at home, East Bengal FC faced a struggling Hyderabad FC at Gachibowli Stadium in their last game of 2024. Hyderabad FC were at the second last position in the league table with 7 points in 12 games.
Both teams started the game with repeated attacks, but soon East Bengal was only defending Hyderabad’s back to back attacks. Though East Bengal had some good opportunities, their passes into the final third was not good enough. The home side were attacking continuously but the East Bengal defence handled all of them. The first major incident of the game came on the 27th minute when a genuine handball was ignored by the referee. Hyderabad FC captain Alex Saji’s hand was well above to result in a freekick in favour of the visitors. But strangely the referee ignored it.
Moments later the Hyderabad FC goal keeper Arshdeep Singh brought down East Bengal captain Cleiton Silva inside the box. That was a 1v1 situation and Arshdeep denied Silva of scoring by raising his boots high and hitting the Brazilian forward in his lower abdomen. That was a clear penalty and Arshdeep should have been sent off directly. But strangely again, that was also not acknowledged by the referee. Just this week, Punjab FC player Pulga Vidal was sent off for clapping. If that can be a red card, then the foul on Silva should result in a multiple game ban for Arshdeep. But he walked away without even a warning! ISL referees continue to disappoint.
Both the teams got more chances in the third quarter of the game. Souvik’s shot from a good position was off target. Vishnu received a ball in the left flank but his cross was at a place where no East Bengal player was present. The first half ended in a stalemate with poor refereeing as the headline.
The second half began with East Bengal trying to find the opener. But East Bengal’s performance was not upto the mark. Vishnu and Diamantakos were really disappointing at the front. East Bengal’s break through came when they got a free kick outside the box. Cleiton Silva is known to score from those places. The Brazilian’s beautiful free kick struck the crosspiece and on the rebound, Jeakson Singh headed that in to break the deadlock. Jeakson was present at the right place at right time.
Even though the Red and Golds took the lead, their attacks were still not promising enough. The passes from middle third were completely aimless. Nandhakumar was holding on to the ball for too long. There was one great attack when Nandha passed the ball inside the box but Diamantakos failed to get a touch. Hyderabad FC were controlling the game from the 80th minute of the game. They were making back to back dangerous attacks but were failing to convert them. East Bengal made an attack but the Greek forward again failed to make a touch. In the very next minute, the home side made a great attack from a brilliant team play. Manoj Mohammed received a ball inside the box from Correia and the former East Bengal defender shot it past Gill to equalise the score.
East Bengal made some attacks at the dying moments of the game but they failed to convert any of them. Diamantakos was completely ineffective throughout the whole game. Questions raised about Oscar Bruzon’s substitutions and why David was not used in the game. With this draw, Hyderabad FC ended their losing streak of five consecutive games.
East Bengal will face Mumbai City FC next on January 6th, at the Salt Lake Stadium. Oscar and his boys will face a challenge against the Islanders. Mumbai are currently at the fifth position and defeating them will be a tough job for East Bengal.