Kolkata: Trailing till the 90th minute, East Bengal produced a comeback for the ages to beat Kuwait Premier League runners-up Al Arabi SC 4-1 and make the main round of the AFC Champions League 2 here on Wednesday.
Key Moments
David Lalhlansanga then did a Rashid, scoring in the 117th minute and setting one up for Rohit Danu in 120+1 to complete the rout. In 2023-24, the left back had had such a breakout season that he made the India team. Bipin Singh could have done that – get the cauldron of nearly 18,000 go wild on a wet, muggy night– as East Bengal broke from a corner-kick in the 54th minute but his shot was cleared by Sheldon.
With a superbly volleyed goal in the 108th minute and an assist, the Palestine midfielder, whose strike had sealed the ISL title, led the charge. The calm Lalhlansanga showed while rounding off Al Arabi’s tall centre back Sheldon and leaving goalkeeper Sulaiman Abdulghafoor on the floor for the goal and then finding Danu, belied the fact that he, like most in this team, was new to this stage. All night, East Bengal had tried and failed to get beyond the towering backline of Al Arabi. Till Jay Gupta did in the 90th minute. He has fallen off the radar somewhat but, timing his run perfectly and moving in to meet Rashid’s precise free kick, Gupta connected with a powerful header that fetched East Bengal the equaliser. Salt Lake stadium shook. Then, East Bengal fell back to a Anayo Iwuala penalty in the 76th minute, the Nigeria international scoring in his first match for his new club. Gupta was turned inside out by Khaled Almershed in the second minute but East Bengal began exploiting space between the Kuwait team’s midfield and defence. Rashid forced a save from Abdulghafoor, the Al Arabi keeper and skipper. Rashid then found Jesin TK whose shot was weak as it was from the East Bengal forward when Lalrindika had spotted him. In the 19th minute, following a quick throw-in from Jesin, Jeakson Singh had wriggled inside the box but was crowded out. Lalrindika then turned Abdul Alawadhi inside out but ended up losing the ball. Such misses usually do not go unpunished and Yousef Alshammari managed to slip one through Prabhsukan Gill’s legs at the near post in the 23rd minute but the East Bengal goalie collected before all of the ball had crossed the goalline.
“It will be the most important match in two years for East Bengal,” skipper Basim Rashid had said.
How the key figures performed
Show tactical intelligence, Rashid had chipped in. With only three foreigners available – Al Arabi had six – East Bengal were doing both. And against a team that had trained in Turkiye and played a friendly against top Egyptian team Pyramids FC, East Bengal were not sitting deep.
That said, Antonio Lopez Habas would have been happy at half-time. Take the match deep, East Bengal’s coach had said on match eve.
