Former champions East Bengal turned in a classy performance to rout Air India 3-1 and storm into the quarter-finals of the Federation Cup football tournament.
The four-time champions from Kolkata had things their way in the second match of the tournament, after defending champions Dempo were shocked 1-2 by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited in the tournament opener, at the Nehru stadium in Margao, Goa, on Wednesday.
South African international Sydeny Nkalanga and Nigerian Mike Okoro did the star turn for the Kolkata giants, scoring once each and teaming to string together moves to tear open the Air India defence.
For a major part of the first session, after East Bengal forged ahead in the ninth minute through Nkalanga, it was the Mumbai side though that held sway. But their inability to exploit the gaps in the East Bengal defence denied them success.
Nkalanga opened the floodgates in the ninth minute. He trapped a pass from Okoro and beat a host of Air India defenders before bulging the net.
Dipankar Roy, who replaced captain Alvito D'Cunha, who suffered a hamstring injury in the 39th minute, made it 2-0 a minute from the breather. He latched on to a diagonal from Okoro on the left, cut past three Air India defenders and sent the ball crashing into the net past goalkeeper Raju Ekka.
Okoro then got his name on the score sheet in the 58th minute after Nkalanga worked his way into the Air India box and laid the ball on a platter for him to finish.
As East Bengal slowed down the pace, Air India tried hard to make a fight of the contest but found their opponent's all-round superiority just too much to match.
In fact, they were lucky in restricting the scoreline, thanks to goalkeeper Ekka, who brought off some fine saves, particularly one off former international I M Vijayan, who replaced Nkalanga in the 71st minute.
Air India got some consolation in the form of an own goal when East Bengal defender Syed Nabi, in an attempt to cut off a cross from Air India's Zaheer Abbas, shot into his own goal.
