East Bengal vs Shandong Lunen FC - IFA Shield 

East Bengal continues their superb testimony against foreign club once again today at the Salt lake stadium against Shandong Lunen FC of China. As both teams already out of the tournament there were very few to witness the superb free flowing example of football. East Bengal started with their unimpressive Brazilian Alessandro along with Baljit Saini and Sushil Sing with an attacking 4 – 3 – 3 formation. Mehtab Hussain’s inclusion reinforced the East Bengal midfield. East Bengal looked solid from the beginning as Sushil Sing & Baljit Saini started combining well with continuous overlap from two wing backs. But it was Shandong Lunen FC who took the lead against the run of the play. A loose ball collected by no 3 of SLFC and he took the full advantage of not closing down by neither Mehraj nor Gurwinder. A very powerful left footer from no 3 went past clueless Avro Mondal. After this goal for a small period of time East Bengal looked sloppy and started committing unforced errors. This time Avro made two good saves to keep east Bengal in the match. Baljit Saini could not keep his header down from a ravinder cross. Then Vasum and LEKO missed two golden opportunity to equalize.  Just after these mis Baljit leveled the terms with a superb left footed volley after a fine move by midfield.

After the break both teams started the match with a very positive note. Both played superb attacking football. Mehtab & Mehraj stood firm this time to keep East Bengal in the match. Then Avro saved one free kick superbly as well as SLFC custodian kept Mehtab long renger out. Then east Bengal made a vital change, Rajib Ghosh came in for LEKO and Ravinder stepped up in the left wing from left back. This change proved costly for SLFC and East Bengal started attacking with all the energy. Then from a superb move initiated by Baljit and Ravinder, Vasum made it 2 – 1 in favor of East Bengal. Then in the injury time man of the match Ravindr put the last nail in the coffin. This IFA shield was not a successful venture for East Bengal in terms of trophy but they kept their record against foreign clubs.