A brace by star striker Baichung Bhutia helped National Football League Champions East Bengal to record a 3-2 win over Indian Bank in a Group B quarterfinal match in the Durand Cup football tournament here today.
In the second match of the day, Air India, who replaced Mohun Bagan, overcame qualifiers Jammu and Kashmir Bank 2-1 after a tough battle in Group D.
East Bengal will now take on Dempo Sports Club on Thursday to decide who will progress to the semifinal while Air India will clash with Vasco to decide the Group winners on the same day.
The ASEAN club champions from Kolkata were in for a shock to begin with as the Chennai team, coached by former Indian skipper V P Satyan, went ahead just after two minutes.
Bank striker M Mani took full advantage of a costly lapse by the Bengal defence and slotted home to peg back the Kolkatans.
Retaliating at lightening pace, East Bengal forced a corner but nothing came off. A free kick followed but the Bank defence led by Sudhakar and Noel Anthony held fort.
Soon Sudhish fouled Bengal skipper Suley Musah but the set piece that resulted was wasted by Mike Okoro who reacted a trifle slow.
Bhutia, just back after leading India to the silver medal in the inaugural Afro-Asian Games in Hyderabad, got his first real touch and fed Subash Chakraborty but the winger wasted the opportunity.
The East Bengal equaliser came in the 16th minute following a corner kick.
Splitting the defence, Okoro went up and relayed the ball to Alvito D'Cunha who earned a corner. He then floated in the corner and the diminutive Bhutia, lurking near the far post, made mockery of the tall defenders and headed in.
Three minutes later Alvito came up with one of his trade mark left-footers but the Bank 'keeper Felix Edward tipped the ball away.
East Bengal continued to attack for the next ten minutes but but failed to take the lead.
In the next few minutes, Musah came close twice. First he failed to make use of a free kick and later his goal bound shot was cleared on the line by a Bank defender.
A couple of minutes later Bhutia and Okoro broke the off-side trap and moved up. The Sikkimese fed his partner, who had a full view of the goal, but shot wide.
Despite the sustained raids by the Kolkatans the Bank performed in patches and one such move saw Mani wasting a good chance managing only a weak grounder from inside the box.
Changing ends with the score tied 1-1, Bhutia scored in the 49th minute to put his team ahead putting on display his silken skills before the sparse crowd.
The goal came off a free kick taken superbly by Subhas who found an unmarked Bhutia inside the box. The wily striker needed only a split second to take aim and bulge the net giving no chance to his markers and the 'keeper.
A flurry of substitutions followed by both the teams before Malsawmtluanga created his team's third goal in the 80th minute.
