Jeremiah celebrates after scoring his second goal on Saturday. Picture by Rajesh Kumar

New Delhi: Twenty-four year old Ernest Chukwuma Jeremiah made a dream debut for East Bengal, in a group B Durand quarter final league match here Saturday. He scored thrice and helped East Bengal trounce Sporting Clube de Goa 4-0 and reach the semi-finals.

Jeremiah became the first player since Shyam Thapa in 1966 (against Rajasthan Club in the Calcutta league), to score three goals in his opening match for East Bengal.

East Bengal topped group B with six points. The 15-time champions meet JCT in the semi-final Monday.

The last time the teams met in the Durand was in the 1999 semi-finals and East Bengal had won 3-0. That year too, Easy Bengal?s coach was Subhas Bhowmick and JCT?s Sukhwinder Singh.

Earlier, JCT scraped through to the last-four with a 1-1 draw with Dempo in group D. JCT topped the group with four points, the same as Dempo, but had a marginally superior goal difference.

The Phagwara-based team went ahead in the tenth minute when Manjit Singh?s cross from the left was headed in by striker Harvinder Singh. Dempo needing a win to qualify, missed easy chances before, in the 89th minute, substitute Y. Raju Singh?s curling corner kick was headed in by stopper Majeck Bolaji.

The muscle injury to Paolo Roberto Da Silva proved a blessing in disguise for East Bengal. New recruit Jeremiah impressed with his work rate, dribbling skills, holding the ball and, above all, explosive finish. He scored twice within a span of three minutes just before half time to finish off the match as a contest. In the 40th minute Douglas Da Silva sent a pass up the middle and Jeremiah shrugged off defenders to enter the box before placing past a hapless goalkeeper.

Three minutes later Chandan Das? diagonal pass reached overlapping defender Selwyn Fernandez Sporting ?keeper Luis Baretto advanced to block Selwyn, but off the rebound Jeremiah shot into an empty net from 25 yards.

East Bengal ?keeper didn?t have a cool time either. He had to make a number of good saves off Sporting strikers Dudu Omagbemi and Nicolas Borges.

In the second half East Bengal again played the waiting game and scored twice through counter-attacks. In the 65th minute Jeremiah drifted wide on the left, snatched the ball from substitute right back Agnelo D?Costa, cut in and sent a reverse pass to Chandan who scored with a rising right-footer from the edge of the box. Chandan damaged a groin muscle in the process and was rested.

Nine minutes later Shylo Malsawmtluanga slid a forward pass to Jeremiah who entered from right of the box and bulged the netting, with a ferocious rising right-footer.

TEAMS

East Bengal: Rajat Ghosh Datsidar, Syed Rahim Nabi, Debjit Ghosh, Selwyn Fernandez, Madhab Das, Akshay Das, Shylo Malsawmtluanga, Douglas Da Silva, Chandan Das (Sandip Das, 69), Bijen Singh (Nitin Pradhan, 81) and E.C. Jeremiah.

Sporting Clube de Goa: Luis Baretto, Wilton Gomes (Agnelo D?Costa 21), Jithesh, Vincent Pires, Ajay Diwadkar, Sachin Gawas (Alvito Rodrigues, 65), Bibaiano Fernandez, Adebayo Adewisi, Joseph Pereira, Dudu Omagbemi and Nicolas Borges (C. Jatin Singh, 79).

Referee: Arjunann (Services)

Bagan dilemma

Meanwhile, Mohun Bagan are worried who to play in central defence in their semi-final vs Salgaocar Sunday. With Eduardo Coelho ruled out, coach Subrata Bhattacharya may either withdraw Noel Wilson to central defence or play newcomer T. Roopesh. Bagan?s quartet of internationals are reaching Delhi early Sunday and a decision on their playing will be taken by the Bhattacharya just before the match.

Sunday?s match: Mohun Bagan vs Salgaocar (semi-final).