Oscar Bruzon shifts East Bengal's focus to AFC Challenge League after Odisha FC setback

The Spanish tactician hasn’t had the best start to life at the helm of a struggling Torchbearers’ side.

Oscar Bruzon will hope that the AFC Challenge League gives East Bengal a chance to bounce back from their awful start to the 2024-25 season. The Red & Gold Brigade’s 2-1 loss to Odisha FC in the Indian Super League (ISL) clash on Tuesday (22 October) was their eighth straight defeat across all competitions, a run that began with their defeat to Shillong Lajong in the Durand Cup.

East Bengal showed signs of promise against the Juggernauts, creating a flurry of big goal-scoring chances in the first 15 minutes and boasting an impressive high-pressing style. Despite that, their struggles in front of goal and defensive lapses haunted them as goals from Roy Krishna and Mourtada Fall inspired a win for Odisha FC.

Oscar Bruzon on the need for change

Oscar Bruzon remains hopeful that the change in scenery and competition in the AFC competition can help them slowly turn things around. He insists East Bengal must start winning games quickly to have a chance at making the ISL playoffs and stated, “We now have the AFC Challenge League and a home game before the November break. That (the next international window) will be good for the team to come into the ideas of the new coach. But we need immediate results.”

“We’ve played 6 games in ISL and have zero points. The only way we can qualify for the knockout stages is finish in the top-6 and to do that, we need to win 10 games. So if you make calculations, if we want to qualify, we must win 10 of our next 16 games. We are already in a countdown even though the season has just stated,” Oscar Bruzon also added.

East Bengal will play three matches of the AFC Challenge League group stages in the course of a week or so. They start their campaign against Paro FC on 26 October before facing Bruzon’s former employers Bashundhara Kings and Nejmeh SC in the group.

All the group matches will take place at the ChanglimIthang Stadium in Thimphu in Bhutan and only the winner of the group can move forward to the knockout stages. After the AFC Challenge League matches, East Bengal get back to action in the ISL in their first mini-Kolkata derby against Mohammedan Sporting on 9th November before the November international break.

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