Quess East Bengal’s hopes of winning the I-League suffered another jolt when Aizawl FC held them to a 1-1 draw at the Salt Lake Stadium on Monday. East Bengal are now placed second, tied on points with Real Kashmir — 33 from 17 matches. Chennai City FC have 40 from 18 games and will need just two points from their remaining two matches to annex the title.

Down by a goal till the 65th minute, East Bengal did come close to scoring the winner in the closing stages when Joby Justin’s header hit the post and Lalrindika Ralte’s shot missing the target by a whisker. In the end, East Bengal were left rueing another missed opportunity after Aizawl were reduced to 10 men for the last 20-odd minutes.

Man of the Match Leonce Dodoz’s 23rd minute strike was cancelled out by Enrique Esqueda, following a superb cross from substitute Samad Mallick.

“The championship will be very difficult now... We have few possibilities but the chances for Chennai City are easy after today’s draw,” admitted Alejandro Garcia.

The East Bengal coach, however, didn’t agree that the team played badly. “Nothing went wrong today… The only wrong was that we didn’t score. In football, you need to score, doesn’t matter how many chances you make.”

In the absence of Johnny Acosta, who was suspended for the game, Salam Ranjan Singh played his first match since his outing with the national team for the AFC Asian Cup. But his rustiness showed.

Aizawl broke the deadlock when Dodoz made no mistake after receiving a long ball from Alfred Jaryan. East Bengal players, however, felt Dodoz was standing in an offside position when he received the ball deep inside the East Bengal territory. “I don’t know if that was offside or not,” said coach Garcia.

East Bengal’s only chance in the first half came when Laldanmawia Ralte dipping long ranger was tipped over by Aizawl goalie Lalawmpuia. In fact, had the goalkeeper not come to their rescue on few other occasions, the visitors wouldn’t have been able to return home with a point.

East Bengal survived a close call when Kromah’s goal was disallowed on the stroke of half-time. Rakshit Dagar had the ball in his palms when Kromah intercepted it to slot home but the referee ruled it to be an obstruction on the goalie.

“I don’t have any clue why that is not a goal... I don’t understand how the referee denied the goal. I don’t understand on what basis he denied the goal but I have to respect it. We could have gone 2-0 up…” said Aizawl coach Stanly Rozario.