East Bengal looks to change fortunes in AFC Challenge Cup

Indian football club East Bengal FC will kick off their AFC Challenge League group stage tomorrow against Paro FC of Bhutan.

The group stage will be followed by matches against Bashundhara Kings on October 29 and Nejmeh SC on November 1.

The club from Kolkata has suffered a torrid start to the season in the Indian Super League and is yet to pick the first point losing all six matches till now.

The poor show led to the exit of Carles Cuadrat with Bino George filling in as interim coach. The club has Spaniard Oscar Bruzon as the new manager but his first match also resulted in a loss against Odisha FC.

Bruzon enjoyed great success with his former club, Bashundhara Kings, which will be one of East Bengal’s opponents in the group stages.

In the game against Odisha FC, the lack of finishing hurt East Bengal with the only goal coming via a penalty. The likes of Nandha Kumar and Dimitrios Diamantakos are struggling in front of the goal.

The team will look to turn around their fortune and get some confidence for the league also with a win against Paro FC.

East Bengal squad for AFC Challenge Group Stages:

Goalkeepers: Prabhsukhan Gill, Debjit Majumder, Aditya Patra

Defenders: Provat Lakra, Anwar Ali, Lalchungnunga, Mohamad Rakip, Hijazi Maher, Nishu Kumar, Gursimrat Gill, Hector Yuste, Monotosh Chakladar

Midfielders: Jeakson Singh, Madih Talal, Nandhakumar Sekar, Saul Crespo, Souvik Chakrabarti, Naorem Mahesh Singh, Naseeb Rahman, Shyamal Besra, Vishnu PV, Sayan Banerjee

Forwards: Dimitrios Diamantakos, Cleiton Silva, David Lalhlansanga, Jesin TK