Neroca come back to hold East Bengal, jump to 3rd in ILeague

IMPHAL: Neroca FC scored a lastgasp goal through Nedo Turkovic of Bosnia-Herzegovina to hold heavyweights East Bengal 1-1 and jump to the third spot in the I-League table on Saturday.

Katsumi Yusa gave the visitors the lead in the 12th minute and the Kolkata side were on the verge of sealing a victory before Turkovic struck the equaliser in the 89th minute to the wild cheers of the home supporters.

Despite the draw, East Bengal are on top of the league table with 14 points from seven matches while I-League newbies Neroca are on third with 11 points from six games. Both teams started on a cautious note and put in more effort to hold their own half.

East Bengal took the lead from the spadework of Willis Plaza who went through the right side of the box and sent a defencesplitting pass to Japanese midfielder Katsumi who volleyed it home to silence the 28,000 strong home crowd. To provide more thrust in the attacking third, Neroca coach Gift Raikhan brought in Turkovic in place of Israilov Akhlidin in the first half.

After the change-over, Neroca looked hungrier for the equaliser and the Orange outfit kept the Red and Golds defenders on their toes.

KERALA TO FACE BENGALURU IN ISL

KOCHI: Kerala Blasters will hope to get their act together against Bengaluru FC in the upcoming Indian Super League encounter.

As it stands, every game has become crucial so both teams would be hoping to get a right result but there is a little bit of pride at stake here.

TO PROVIDE MORE THRUST IN THE ATTACKING THIRD, NEROCA COACH GIFT RAIKHAN BROUGHT IN TURKOVIC IN PLACE OF ISRAILOV AKHLIDIN IN THE FIRST HALF.