Considering the qualification for the knock-out stage of the ongoing Santosh Trophy it was a must-win match for Bengal against Punjab. Bengal failed to deliver at the Banga ground in Punjab on Monday, accepting a humiliating 0-3 defeat at the hands of Punjab to crash out of the senior national championship from the group only. 

Asif Khan, Akashdeep Singh, and Sukhmanpreet Singh struck for the winners. 

According to Bengal coach Ranjan Chowdhury, their match ground was changed in the eleventh hour, on Monday afternoon. The ground condition was horrible with garbage behind the goalpost. Then it was extremely uneven. 

But even after accepting this as well as poor officiating of the match, another reality was also exposed on the day when Bengal was completely disjointed, especially in its defensive organization. Even in the case of the third goal lack of a positive left-back in the team was clear as the Punjab forward displaced Raj Basfor with an easy turn on the edge of the top box and sent the minus that was converted by Sukhmanpreet without even any resistance. 

Ranjan Admitted saying, “It is true that our defense failed to deliver. Dibyendu Biswas, our key stopper was booked for the match, and at the same time, I asked my boys to deliver attacking football as it was a must-win match for us.”

Bengal’s experienced custodian and also captain of the team Shankar Roy should also be blamed for conceding the second goal. 

IFA secretary Anirban Dutta, naturally upset, commented “I have to talk to the coach and manager. I expected Bengal would be able to qualify for the knock-out stage winning against Punjab and Ladakh in the last two matches. I cannot say that it was not a competent team. ”