Jayanta Sen congratulates Man of the Match Syed Rahim Nabi after the latter scored the third goal for East Bengal at Salt Lake Stadium on Saturday. A Telegraph picture

Calcutta: Man of the Match Syed Rahim Nabi scored a brace as a spirited East Bengal outsmarted table-toppers Sporting Clube de Goa to score a 3-1 win in their eighth round ONGC I-League match at the Salt Lake Stadium on Saturday evening.

Sunil Chetri, with his usual precision put the red-and-gold brigade in front, heading in a Yusif Yakubu centre in the 13th minute. Eleven minutes later, Nabi struck the second, slotting home a Surkumar Singh pass and tabbed in the third (his second) in the 30th minute off a Sunil Chetri through from the left.

A clearly down and out Sporting Clube de Goa however, managed one consolation goal in the 52nd minute when Harmanjot Khabra headed in a Junior Obagbemiro cross.

The win took Stanley Rozario’s men to the fourth place with 12 points from eight encounters while their Goan opponents remained at the top despite losing. They now have 18 points from eight matches.

Sporting Clube de Goa, in the first-half, struggled to match East Bengal but were beaten by the hosts in every department. East Bengal began well, toying with the Sporting defence and within 30 minutes went 3-0 up.

Sporting’s defenders — Mathew Gonsalves, Chintachandra Sekhar, Philip Gomes and N. Samananda Singh — lacked co-ordination in the face of constant pressure from East Bengal. While one Yakubu shot in the 10th minute went out of play, five minutes after the first goal, East Bengal squandered another golden chance.

After the first-half, when East Bengal looked compact in all departments and played like champions, Sporting, came back strongly in the second half and exposed the chinks in the hosts’ defence.

With one change — Bibiano Fernandes in place of T. Joychandra Singh — the Goans started clawing back into the match. The Nigerian duo of Junior Obagbemiro and Amos Nathaniel, also started looking sharp. Seven minutes into the second-half, Harmanjot Khabra managed to score with his head.

After the lemon break, East Bengal surprisingly looked a tired side. However, they did thwart some threatening Sporting moves, and even missed converting one when Saumik Dey shot outside.

TEAMS

East Bengal: Subrata Paul, Suley Musah, Nirmal Chetri, Syed Rahim Nabi, Mehtab Hossain (Alvito D’ Cunha 82), Saumik Dey, Surkumar Singh, Jayanta Sen, Merajuddin Wadoo, Yusif Yakubu (Parveen Kumar, 69) Sunil Chetri

Sporting Clube de Goa: Felix D’ Souza, Mathew Gonsalves, Chintachandra Sekhar (Anthony D’ Souza, 74), Philip Gomes, N. Samananda Singh (Pexioto Freiman, 80), Harmanjot Khabra, T. Joychandra Singh (Bibiano Fernandes, 46), Amos Nathaniel, Rovan Pereira, Obagbemiro Junior, Sobrosa Luciano

Referee: A. Arjunan

Man of the Match: Syed Rahim Nabi