East Bengal’s Ernest Jeremiah bursts through a Nebitchi FC defence at the Salt Lake Stadium on Wednesday. Jeremiah scored a hattrick, leading East Bengal to a 3-2 victory. Picture by Santosh Ghosh

Calcutta: East Bengal ended their AFC Cup campaign and the season in general in breathtaking fashion, riding an Ernest Jeremiah hattrick to devastate Nebitchi FC of Turkmenistan 3-2 at the Salt Lake Stadium on Wednesday.

The scoresheet is, however, hugely misleading, because it barely reflects the utter domination and devastation that Subhas Bhowmick’s boys unleashed, and because it might not tell the story of the home team’s sheer commitment to attack. There were innumerable chances created and missed along the way.

The way the Bijen Singhs, Shylo Malsawmtluangas, Climax Lawrences and Selwyn Fernandes (the list can go on) messed up from close range, was simply shocking. A dozen could easily have been added to the scoreline. The goals conceded were the result of direct defensive lapses.

All said and done, it was performance that seemed to be a reminder of what this team in red and gold is capable of, no matter if they failed to defend the National Football League title and made an early exit from the Asian competition.

If the relentless waves of East Bengal attacks from the beginning turned the heat on the visitors from Turkmenistan, the humidity certainly pushed them to the limit. They mostly walked, went through the motions and every now and then, stopped, panting.

Seen from this perspective, Nebitchi started the match at a disadvantageous position, having come here with a 12-member squad. The worst happened in the 40th minute when Geldimyrat Garakanov exited due to dehydration, forcing the Nebitchi reserve goalkeeper Farhat Bazarov to come in as a striking force.

East Bengal were leading by one goal at the time. Jeremiah turned a routine move into something special on the half-hour mark as he wove his way brilliantly around the penalty area, taking two rival defenders in his strike and finally, unleashing a left-footer, that beat Nebitchi goalkeeper Retepberoi Bagabernyev all ends up.

Then came the Bijen blunder ? the East Bengal striker, who hit the winner against Muktijoddha in Dhaka ? ballooning the ball over bar with an open net before him.

The real surprise, however, was due seven minutes after the break. For the first time Nebitchi showed some attacking intentions, leading to Farhat’s unexpected deed.

Rajat Ghosh Dastidar failed to claim a left-wing cross and his defence stood still, allowing the Nebitchi reserve goalkeeper to push the ball in.

The equaliser seemed to have jerked East Bengal and within four minutes, Jeremiah put his team ahead once again. Syed Rahim Nabi loped up, easily outspeeding the rivals, struggling to cope with the heat and humidity. The ball was squared to Malsawmtluanga, who foxed Yagmyrmyrat Annamyradov with a quick turn and found the Nigerian teammate clear at the right. Jeremiah finished in style, dodging past Bagabernyev.

Two minutes later, Climax failed to keep the ball on target with the goalkeeper at his mercy. But Jeremiah covered such silliness from the end of his teammates with a deserving hattrick in the 62nd minute.

Nabi again started the attack and found Jeremiah clear at the other end, who smashed the ball into the top corner of the net.

Nebitchi, in the meantime, dented the East Bengal profligacy with a late goal. Debjit Ghosh fumbled to clear a Chandan Das back-pass, letting Hoja Ahmet Arazov to make it 3-2.

TEAMS

East Bengal: Rajat Ghosh Dastidar; Syed Rahim Nabi, Marcos Secco, Debjit Ghosh, Habibur Rahman Mondal; Selwyn Fernandes, Sandip Das (Chandan Das, 60), Climax Lawrence (Bhola Prasad, 85), Shylo Malsawmtluanga; Ernest Jeremiah, Bijen Singh (Dipankar Roy, 76).

Nebitchi FC: Retepberoi Bagabernyev; Rahman Guly Baliyev, Oraznepes Orazov, Vitaliy Alikperov, Yagmyrmyrat Annamyradov, Zarif Ereshov; Geldimyrat Garakanov (Farhat Bazarov, 40), Yazguly Hojageldiyev, Yakup Beraiyev, Hoja Ahmet Arazov; Yaygeniy Tkachenko.

Referee: Ravshan Irmatov (Uzbekistan).