Kolkata: When Anthony Andrews spoke of challenges ahead of the preliminary round of the AFC Women’s Champions League, the East Bengal head coach meant missing key players and hoping one didn’t miss connections from Casablanca to Sabah in Malaysia before Monday’s opening game.
To say East Bengal could be hard hit by Fazila Ikwaput’s absence is understating the obvious. It earned them a berth in Asia for the second successive season. The Uganda international was prolific in the 2025-26 Indian Women’s League scoring 18 goals in 13 matches as defending champions East Bengal made the title race a procession, finishing the season 14 points ahead of second-placed Sethu FC.
It was a goal and an assist from Ikwaput, 25, that took East Bengal past Phnom Penh Crown and Kitchee FC at this stage last year and to the main round where they were a couple of stoppage-time minutes away from being among Asia’s top eight clubs. Because of travel restrictions following the outbreak of the Ebola virus, along with left-side attacker Resty Nanziri, Ikwaput will be missing this round.
With a bunch of local players who have made the first team this season, East Bengal trained in Kalyani, nearly 55km away from Kolkata, for one month and played training games with local under-18 boys teams. In that time, Andrews also liaised with Ghana’s staff in Casablanca so that Opoku doesn’t miss the first game against Bangladesh’s Rajshahi Stars. “It is a big setback. “They understand how we want to play as a team. They are part of the team’s core. “We need to be smart. He didn’t rule out getting new signing Olivia Anokye involved in the front third either. “But Bangladesh have made significant strides in women’s football and many of their national team players are with Rajshahi. And they are likely to have six foreigners. The first game is a big challenge.
Playing India forwards Rimpa Haldar and Priyanka Naorem as false nine can be a way of getting around Ikwaput’s absence, said Andrews. “In terms of FIFA rankings those countries are well behind us,” said Andrews. Fazila is a poacher,” Andrews told HT on Friday before leaving for Malaysia.
