Kajol’s double strike helps Sethu FC cross East Bengal bridge

Kajol D’Souza scored a brace to help Sethu FC earn its third win in the IWL 2023-24 campaign, defeating East Bengal 2-0 at the Tilak Maidan on Sunday.

This much-needed victory meant that Sethu could now put its three-match losing streak behind them.

The Madurai-based club, playing out of Goa this season, has now accrued 10 points from eight games, but remains rooted to fifth in the IWL table, behind HOPS, which is on the same number of points, but ahead due to a better head-to-head record.

However, neither team looks likely to take its battle into the championship zone since Gokulam Kerala FC, Kickstart FC, and Odisha FC stand way ahead in the table -- the three-way battle for the title taking place nine points ahead of the Madurai club.

East Bengal, on the other hand, continues to languish deep into the bottom half, just ahead of Sports Odisha with only four points in its pocket. Sunday’s defeat was its seventh in nine outings.

Sethu FC is not having a great season either, but against East Bengal, it looked far more cohesive and definitely initiated better penetrative moves.

Its forwards, Malvika P, Kajol D’Souza, and Kaviya Pakkirisamy, who had to leave the pitch in the second half because of an injury, did a good job of keeping the rival defence busy regularly.

Sethu FC could have added a few more but missed chances, and its tendency to attempt unrealistic long rangers restricted them to a couple.

Kajol D’Souza scored the first goal of the match, neatly converting a penalty kick in the seventh minute after an East Bengal defender handled the ball inside the area.

Her second goal came in the 82nd minute when she caught the defence off-guard to round off the goalkeeper before pushing the ball over the line.

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