ISL 2022-23: Cleiton Silva goal gives East Bengal narrow win over Bengaluru FC

Shibu Preman /Focus Sports/ ISL

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Cleiton Silva scored against his old side as East Bengal FC handed Bengaluru FC their third successive 1-0 defeat of the season in the Hero Indian Super League (ISL) at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru. This was EB's first clean sheet of the season. Playing after a fortnight, BFC were able to welcome back quite a few players after recovery from injuries, and Simon Grayson started Suresh Wangjam, Udanta Singh and Javier Hernandez together for the first time this season.

No goals were scored in the opening half as the hosts finished the half without a single shot on target. In the first minute, Bruno Silva fired an effort from distance that flashed just wide of goal. Ten minutes later, Charis Kyriakou tried his luck from range, but his strike was collected comfortably by Gurpreet Singh Sandhu. Two minutes past the hour-mark, Roy Krishna was put clean through on goal with a sublime pass from Hernandez. He entered the box but scuffed what would be Bengaluru FC's only proper chance.

In the 69th minute, the deadlock was finally broken. Running towards his own goal on the left as the last man, Wangjam came under pressure from Mahesh and miskicked his backpass towards the goalkeeper. Mahesh pounded on the loose ball and was one-on-one with the keeper when he squared it for Silva, who calmly tapped the ball in.

A minute away from 90, Chhetri flicked the ball towards Krishna who managed to get past the keeper but could not avoid Ivan Gonzalez's brilliant last-ditch tackle that took the ball away from him. Six minutes were added on but the Blues could not breach the visitors' defence.

The season's second win for East Bengal saw them leapfrog Bengaluru in the ISL table and move into eighth place. For their next game, EB will host Odisha FC on November 18, Friday, while BFC travel to Mumbai City FC next on November 17, Thursday.