East Bengal earned a facile 2-0 victory over State Bank of Travancore [Get Quote] in their pre-quarter-final encounter of the 28th Peerless Federation Cup at the Salt Lake stadium in Kolkata on Wednesday.

Strikes from Syed Rahim Nabi and skipper Alvito D'Cunha in the first half settled the issue in favour of the Kolkata giants.

Sixteen minutes into the match a ball from the right by Duley had the desired result. A diving header from Nabi found the target as the SBT defenders were late to react. A lack of communication between goalkeeper Harshal Rahman and his defender Abdul Basheer was evident.

Throughout the match, East Bengal's Japan [Images] based forward Izumi Arata showed speed and agility and the hunger but his final touch was atrocious and spoiled all his efforts.

But his persistence kept the SBT defence on their toes, creating a lot of free space for Alvito and Nabi to operate.

The second goal came in the 39th minute; Rahman was again to be blamed. He misjudged a Sen centre and Nabi headed it down for an onrushing Alvito. And the East Bengal skipper showed composure, slating the ball home.

Five minutes after the breather, Nabi and Arata made a mess out of an Alvito centre as both stood watching, hoping that the other would react.

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