Suley Musah challenges Edmilson in the NFL tie at Salt Lake Stadium on Saturday. A Telegraph picture

Calcutta: The East Bengal-Air India script followed the same lines as the day’s first match between Mohun Bagan and Churchill Brothers at the Salt Lake Stadium.

Both the local heavyweights salvaged a point after trailing by a goal, East Bengal managing it three minutes into injury time.

Edmilson Marques banged in off a Snehashish Chakraborty corner to nullify Air India’s advantage in the round X match of the 11th National Football League for the ONGC Cup.

All the excitement took place in the last quarter of the match which was dominated by Samson Singh of Air India. Breaching the fragile defence of Covan Lawrence and Cristiana H.D. Oliveira, Samson slammed one home in the 73rd minute.

Having squandered a couple of chances minutes before Air India drew first blood, Boniface Ambani and the rest of the team were left aghast. The crowd reacted angrily, hurling abuses and objects at the VIP box where East Bengal secretary was seated. Policemen had to intervene to pacify the fans.

When everybody thought that East Bengal had lost another game, Edmilson saved the blushes for the gold-and-yellow brigade.

Expressing disappointment that the team was not combining well, East Bengal coach Carlos Roberto Pereira said: “Maybe they would remove me now… it’s easy to sack a coach, not the players.”

TEAMS

East Bengal: Abhra Mondal, Surya Bikash Chakraborty, Cristiana H.D. Oliveira, Covan Lawrence, Shasty Duley, S. Malsawmtluanga (Bibiano Fernandes 79), Jayanta Sen, Chandan Das (Izumi Arata 61), Snehashish Chakraborty, Bonface N. Ambani (Fredy Mascarenhas 70), Edmilson Marques.

Air India: Raju Ekka, Nepoleon Singh, Benoy Kuruvilla, A.K. Martins, Suley Musah, Sanju Pradhan (Uttam Singh 54), Hringsolal Thonte, Noel Fernandes (Vinay Kuruvilla 80), Paresh Shivaukar, Bashiru M. Abbas (Narendra Meetei 59), Samson Singh.

Referee: K. Shankar (Tamil Nadu).

Man-of-the-Match: Samson Singh.