What must East Bengal improve to excel at AFC Champions League Two?

Red & Gold beat Al-Arabi with a late comeback.

East Bengal produced an inspiring performance to progress to the group stages of the 2026-27 AFC Champions League Two by defeating Kuwait side Al-Arabi SC at the Salt Lake Stadium, Kolkata on Wednesday (12 August, 2026).

Despite going behind in the game, the Torchbearers rallied back through Jay Gupta’s equalizer that forced extra time – where a clinical effort from Antonio Habas’ side allowed them to get a clinical win.

This was definitely a big result for East Bengal, who were considered by many as the underdogs heading into this clash. However, rather than succumbing to the pressure, the Red & Gold Brigade actually thrived under it and produced a tenacious and efficient performance to secure a place to play in the newly-christened AFC Champions League Two for the first time.

As East Bengal will be representing Indian football in the competition, there will be some pressure on them to try to uphold their country’s reputation with some respectable performances in the AFC Champions League Two group stages.

They are poised to face much tougher opposition in the main tournament, which means their performance-levels aslo need to be taken to another level for them to hold their own against the adversity.

While the performance against Al-Arabi SC was a really impressive one, there are still some aspects of their game which must be improved for them to perform strongly at the AFC Champions League Two.

Here, we look at the some key aspects of their game that must be improved for East Bengal to excel at the 2026-27 AFC Champions League Two.

More efficiency on counter-attacks

Under Antonio Habas, East Bengal appear to have become a team that puts a lot of stock on their counter-attacking capabilities and being able to torment teams on the transitions. Against Al-Arabi SC itself, the Kolkata giants looked for every opportunity to pour bodies in the frontline when their opposition players were far ahead on the pitch.

With that being said, while the application of the counter-attacks from East Bengal are becoming better – as they’re able to move from their box to the opposition final third in rapid fashion – there is still a missing piece of the puzzle for their counter-attacking threat.

That is because East Bengal are still not as clinical as their gaffer would want them to be in actually putting away chances and being more ruthless in the final phases of the counter-attacks.

Their players might be able to get the ball from defence into attack quickly, but they are still very sloppy in actually putting the finishing touches to it.

The East Bengal players must work even harder in training in actually putting away chances at the end of counter-attacks to justify their threat on the transitions and be able to surprise opponents with this quality in the AFC Champions League Two.

Defensively stronger through the wide areas

While East Bengal will be able to play with six foreign players in their AFC Champions League Two matches, their backline is likely to only consist of one foreigner. Indeed, only centre-back Nacho Monsalve is going to add more steel to their defensive line and that means the other Indian defenders need to step up and produce sturdy performances on a consistent basis in the continental competition.

While Anwar Ali is definitely an extremely reliable defensive option, the same kind of assurances cannot be said about the East Bengal full-backs.

Once the AFC Champions League Two group stages begins, the Kolkata giants can expect to face some really dangerous, terrorizing wingers that will strongly test the fortitude of their full-backs. Hardik Bhatt and Jay Gupta might’ve produced pretty solid performances against Al-Arabi, with the latter even scoring, but they need to be ready for even more menacing threat ahead in the group stages.

East Bengal need their full-backs to be able to detect danger and go toe-to-toe with the foreign opposition wingers, tracking their movement well and make well-timed challenges to frustrate them.

They also need their wingers to track back diligently, adding more protection for the full-backs and neutralize the threat of opponents in the wide areas.

Unless East Bengal can defend in a solid manner through their wings, they will open themselves up to a lot of danger and be risk at being carved open easily by opposition sides.

Ruthlessness in the final third

East Bengal might’ve scored four goals in their 2026-27 AFC Champions League Two qualifier against Al-Arabi, but the reality is that they won’t be facing such tired, sloppy opponents in the main stages of the competition.

The Red & Gold Brigade need to realize that they won’t be gifted goals as easily as they did in the extra-time of the Al-Arabi clash, meaning the Kolkata side needs to be as prolific as possible in the group stages of the continental competition.

The reality is that East Bengal will probably not dominate possession for most of their AFC Champions League Two matches, which means the players need to be smart and incisive when they do get the ball. Not only do they need to be prolific on the transitions, but Habas needs his attacking players to showcase utmost ruthlessness in the final third.

He needs his players to start converting their chances much better, putting away opportunities when they come to them inside the box and stop being wasteful for them to be able to get smart results in the competition.

Bravery in contesting for possession

The reason why East Bengal were able to surprise Al-Arabi SC in their recent qualification match is because they didn’t show any fear in fighting to keep a hold of the ball.

Rather than parking the bus, sitting back to let the Kuwaiti side dictate the game, Habas urged his players to fight hard to regain possession in key areas to enhance their potential on the transitions.

The Red & Gold Brigade need to maintain this kind of attitude in their matches at the 2026-27 AFC Champions League Two group stage matches as well, being brave and gritty in looking to contest for possession of the ball.

If they go overly defensively to let the opponents dictate what is happening in the match, that can come back to haunt them really badly and cause them to suffer frustrating losses.

While Habas can’t be faulted for going with a defensive set-up against intimidating attacking opponents in the competitions, he will need to motivate his players to try to press opposition players, close down their spaces and look to regain possession in key areas to frustrate and enhance their own chances of scoring more goals on counter-attacks.

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