East Bengal played their best match in the tournament to date but still sunk to its fourth straight defeat, as A S Roma blanked them 2-0 in the Nike Manchester United Premier Cup (MUPC) at Carrington in Manchester on Thursday.

Roma's fleet-footed forward Montini, who had the East Bengal defence disarray, struck a brace as the Indian team's quarter-final hopes were dashed.

Smarting from a hat-trick of defeats, the East Bengal under-15 squad had not even settled down when Roma forced a corner and Montini's header found the net (1-0).

Though there was no further setback in the first half, East Bengal conceded another soft goal seven minutes into the second session when an unmarked Montini, fed from the left, scored on his second attempt after East Bengal goalkeeper Avishek blocked the first shot.

"The boys played better today but it's too late. The height disadvantage meant we could not take the aerial route against Roma but we did not play that bad.

"Anyways, I'm rather happy that they put behind yesterday's defeat and tried their best," coach Swarup Das said after the match.

Earlier in the day, the Kolkata outfit went down 2-0 to Austria Wien.

For the Austrian side, David (11th minute) and Christoph (15th) were the goal-getters.

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