Football
AFC Challenge Cup: East Bengal dominate hapless Bashundhara Kings
East Bengal FC put an end to their poor form in the season and won their second group game of AFC Challenge Cup.
East Bengal FC registered the first win at the continental level after defeating Bangladeshi club Bashundhara Kings in Tuesday's second group game of the AFC Challenge Cup.
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 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, was caught napping seconds later when Saul Crespo floated the ball into the box and 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.
East Bengal has to play one more match and would want to win it and return to the Indian Super League with more confidence where the club has failed to win any game out of the six played.