AFC Challenge League 2024-25 football: East Bengal hold Paro FC to 2-2 draw

India’s East Bengal FC earned a hard-fought 2-2 draw against Paro FC in their opening AFC Challenge League 2024-25 Group A match at the Changlimithang Stadium in Thimphu, Bhutan on Saturday.

Madih Talal (5’) and Dimitrios Diamantakos (61’) scored the goals for East Ben gal on either side of the half-time whistle while William Asiedu Opoku (7’) and Evans Asante (45+4’) got on the scoresheet for the Bhutanese champions.

East Bengal started the football match well and went ahead inside five minutes.

The Indian club’s Spanish midfielder Saul Crespo set up Madih Talal inside the box with a low cross from the left flank and the Frenchman did the needful, calmly slotting past Paro keeper Milos Cupic.

However, East Bengal managed to protect the advantage for only two minutes. Paro, who recently won their fourth straight Bhutan Premier League title, pushed hard for an equaliser and with the home crowd behind them, drew level almost immediately.

Evans Asante won Paro a penalty after Provat Lakra brought him down inside the box and William Asiedu Opoku stepped up to convert the spot-kick.

East Bengal bossed possession in the first-half, enjoying almost two-thirds of the ball. However, it was the home team, relying on counters, which looked the more dangerous of the two sides going forward.

The trend played out perfectly in the closing stages. East Bengal threw men forward in a bid to regain their lead and were caught out on the counter. Asante, left one-on-one against Prabhsukhan Singh Gill who had come way off his line, made no mistakes and placed his shot inside the goal from outside the box.

East Bengal needed a response in the second-half and Oscar Bruzon’s charges stepped up in the second half.

The Indian side knocked at the Paro FC defence relentlessly and threatened to score on multiple occasions.

Dimitrios Diamantakos did convert one just after the hour mark and brought the Red and Golds back into the match. The half, however, belonged to Paro FC goalkeeper Milos Cupic.

The Serb pulled off some stunning interventions, including a brilliant save to deny Diamantakos a second goal, to help Paro save a point from the match.

For East Bengal, the draw stops a run of seven losses on the trot which started with a 3-2 loss to Turkmenistani club Altyn Asyr in the 2024-25 AFC Champions League Two (ACL Two) playoffs held at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata back in August.

Incidentally, the same loss landed the Kolkata club in the AFC Challenge League - the third-tier continental football competition for Asian clubs after the AFC Champions League Elite and ACL Two.

EBFC also lost their six Indian Super League (ISL) matches since the Altyn Asyr match.

East Bengal’s next match in the AFC Challenge League 2024-25 will be against Bangladesh’s Bashundhara Kings at the same venue on Tuesday.