AFC Challenge League: East Bengal earn first win in style against Bashundhara Kings

All four goals were scored in the first half itself.

India’s East Bengal boosted their AFC Challenge League™ 2024/25 hopes after sealing a comprehensive 4-0 win over Bashundhara Kings of Bangladesh in their Group A tie on Tuesday.

Having drawn 2-2 against Paro FC on Matchday One, East Bengal scored all four goals in the first half to set up an exciting final day encounter with Lebanon’s Nejmeh SC to decide the group winners.

East Bengal came out firing, taking the lead in the first minute after Bashundhara failed to deal with Lal Chungnunga’s cross from the left, which made its way to Dimitrios Diamantakos to strike home from inside the box.

The Indian Super League side almost doubled their lead in the 20th minute from a similar set-up, but Diamantakos packed too much power in his shot with the ball sailing over the bar. 

Bashundhara, however, were caught napping seconds later when Saul Crespo floated the ball into the box which was deflected into the path of Souvik Chakrabarti, who sent it into the top right corner.

East Bengal struck again in the 26th minute through Nandhakumar Sekar after Madih Talal had set him free on the left side of the area.

Anwar Ali put the visitors 4-0 up in the 33rd minute after the defender pounced on a poor clearance from Bashundhara to send the ball into the top left corner.

As East Bengal settled into defending their lead in the second half, Bashundhara began to see more of the ball but barely troubled their opponents with Fernandes and Miguel Figueira both seeing their efforts foiled just before the hour mark.

The duo came close to reducing the deficit in the 82nd minute after Figueira threaded a neat pass to Fernandes, whose shot from just inside the area was denied by the post as East Bengal comfortably saw out the rest of the match.

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