Who are East Bengal's opponents in AFC Challenge League quarter-final?

East Bengal will look to carry forward this momentum in ISL.

East Bengal made Indian football proud by winning their group in the 2024-25 AFC Challenge League in rather exceptional fashion. After playing out a 2-2 draw against Paro FC in the first match, Oscar Bruzon’s men rallied back to get big wins over Bashundhara Kings and Nejmeh SC in the next two games.

That helped them get to seven points and finish on top of the group, guaranteeing the Red & Gold Brigade an automatic place into the quarter-final. The system of this new AFC competition means that there won’t be any Round of 16 but eight teams will get past the group stages to directly get to the quarter-final.

It has since been revealed that East Bengal will be facing off against Turkmenistan side FK Arkadag in the quarter-final. The Turkmenistan top division side finished on top of Group B after winning two of their three matches. They only topped their group due to superior goals scored by Al-Arabi and Abdysh-Ata Kant.

The quarter-finals will be a two-legged encounter where East Bengal and FK Arkadag will get to play each other at their respective home grounds.

The first leg Is currently scheduled to take place on 5 March 2025 at the Salt Lake Stadium. The reverse fixture will happen exactly a week later (12 March) and it should happen at the Arkadag Stadium in Arkadag.

ALSO READ: Oscar Bruzon highlights how AFC Challenge success can impact East Bengal’s performace in ISL

Who Are FK Arkadag?

East Bengal might be a century-old club and one of the oldest playing in the AFC Challenge League right now, but the same can’t exactly be said about Arkadag. The Turkmenistan club was only founded in 2023 by Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, who is the former president of Turkmenistan and the current Chairman of the People’s Council of Turkmenistan.

They have achieved a lot of success over their very short history, having won the Yokary Liga (Turkmenistan top division) in 2023 and also in 2024. They also won the Turkmenistan Cup in 2023 and have been dominating the national scene thanks to the heavy backing from the former president.

Arkadag are actually participating in their first-ever AFC competition in the Challenge League. They picked up wins over Maziya S&RC as well as Abdysh-Ata Kant in the group stages, scoring six goals in three games to win their group.

They enjoyed an incredible amount of success in the previous Yokary Liga campaign. Arkadag won all 26 of their matches, scoring an incredible 126 goals and only conceded 19 times in the campaign.

The rather unique thing about Arkadag is that they only have Turkmenistan players in their squad. Only two players, wingers Ilya Tamurkin (Turkmenistan and Russia) and captain Arslanmurad Amanov (Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan) have dual-national parents but are Turkmenistan citizens themselves.

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