AFC Challenge League: East Bengal look to start afresh as Arkadag test awaits
Times of India | 5 March 2025
Kolkata: It was with the AFC Challenge League that East Bengal FC's long and laborious climb back to respectability under Oscar Bruzon after a wretched start to the season began four months ago in Thimphu.
The Super Cup champions went into Asia's third-tier club tournament having carried the baggage of suffering eight successive defeats across competitions and emerged a week later as a team transformed and dripping with confidence and earning a place in the quarterfinals of the continental competition to boot.
"The team is mature now and in good momentum," Bruzon said as East Bengal resume their date with Asian football with the first-leg quarterfinal against Turkmenistan's FK Arkadag at the Salt Lake Stadium on Wednesday.
The Turkmenistan club, formed just a two seasons ago, will host the return leg on March 12.
Arkadag's arrival in the city on Sunday coincided with the end of East Bengal's flickering top-six hopes in the domestic league with a 1-1 draw with Bengaluru FC, but Bruzon wants to carry his team's buoyancy and fighting spirit into the AFC tournament.
"We did everything we could in the ISL. We fought till the last moment. Now our focus is on the AFC Challenge League. This is the most important thing for us. Competitively, we need to be at our best to win the match tomorrow," Bruzon told reporters on Tuesday.
Defender Anwar Ali has been ruled out of the match after suffering a hamstring injury during the match against Bengaluru. Bruzon, however, can bank on all of his foreigners, including a recuperating Cleiton Silva, to pass the Arkadag test.
A newbie and its ‘stunning' record:
The 105-year-old East Bengal have represented India in Asian club football on most occasions while it's the first brush with continental football for the visitors from Turkmenistan.
Five months ago, East Bengal's hopes for an AFC Champions League-2 berth vanished with a 2-3 loss to another Turkmenistan team — Altyn Asyr FC — in a one-off preliminary qualifier at the Salt Lake Stadum.
However, FK Arkadag have arrived here with a dazzling record. Founded only in 2023 as a pet project of former Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, the team has gone on to win the domestic league twice in a row without losing a single match, stretching their all-conquering run to 61 matches. In fact, their loss to Kuwait's Al-Arabi in the final game of the AFC Challenge League group stage has been the solitary setback in their existence!
The Guiness Book of Records, however, has not recognized the record owing to lack of "available details on the Turkmenistan league."
The rise of Arkadag FC will be facing another interesting challenge away from home against East Bengal. "This is a very important match in our history and we are awaiting a good result tomorrow," Arkadag manager Dovletmyrat Annayev said.
Interestingly, while East Bengal are at the end of a season, Turkmenistan's domestic league is yet to start. Arkadag has come here after a two-week-long camp in Dubai to get acclimatized to the conditions here.
Bruzon refused to believe that late-season fatigue will be weighing too much on his team. Cameroonian striker Raphel Messi Bouli's arrival has been a key factor in East Bengal's recent transformation. The focus will also be on Dimitrios Diamantakos, the Greek forward who scored four goals in three matches in Thimphu but failed to replicate that form in the ISL.
The match will be streamed live on FanCode app from 7pm IST.