Al Wihdat's Iraqi recruit Jaber Rafat en route to his first goal at Salt Lake Stadium on Wednesday. Led by a brace from Rafat, the Jordanian team defeated East Bengal 4-2 in the AFC Cup return-leg match. A Telegraph picture

Calcutta: Between Jordan (105) and India (154), Fifa table says the difference is of 49 points. But in terms of skill, temperament, fitness, execution of plan and intent, the gap is of a few light years.

Al Wihdat, smarting from their 0-2 loss at home on April 2, taught a veritable soccer lesson to East Bengal in their AFC Cup return leg match on Wednesday, thrashing the hosts 4-2 before a partisan crowd at the Salt Lake Stadium.

Making matters worse for Aloke Mukherjee’s side, Edmilson was red-carded towards the end of the match, which means the ace striker won’t be there against Safa FC here on April 30.

Since arriving in the city, the Al Wihdat team management has been telling everyone willing to listen that the shock defeat at home was just that — a shock. It seems now that their excuse, that the players were distracted due to the Jordanian premier league, was a valid one.

In hot and humid conditions, Al Wihdat dished out a streamlined performance. It wasn’t as if East Bengal went down limply. They showed enough spunk to come back twice but a combination of measured attack from the Jordanians and brainless defending from the red-and-golds proved too much to handle.

With this crucial group B victory, Al Wihdat revived their flagging AFC Cup campaign and ejected East Bengal from their comfort zone. The red-and-golds may still make it to the quarter finals but a victory on Wednesday would have made it almost certain.

Aloke Mukherjee’s boys must now beat Safa FC in a return-leg match at home and hope that Al Wihdat draw a blank in their next two encounters.

But a team with big aspirations has to be consistent. Complacency is a killer and East Bengal paid heavily for thinking that a vocal crowd and the weather would do the job for them.

Before any side had settled on to a rhythm, the first goal happened almost out of nowhere.

Sneaking into the space between a heavy-footed M. Suresh and a clueless Majek Bolaji, Al Wihdat’s Iraqi recruit Jaber Rafat played a one-two with Amer Khalil and scrapped a right footer past an advancing Subrata Paul in the fifth minute. 1-0.

The goal should have made East Bengal aware of the lack of synchronisation in their defence. Suresh and Bolaji were frequently outpaced and Surkumar Singh was never in place.

The hosts equalised against the run of play in the 11th minute when Edmilson lofted an accurate ball to Syed Rahim Nabi on the left. A sprightly run and a body faint later, Nabi placed it coolly on the right of the Al Wihdat goalie to make it 1-1.

It, however, didn’t slow down the Jordanians who by now had an iron grip on the midfield. Their second goal was again a result of Rafat’s opportunism. In the 23rd minute, midfielder Mahmoud Hasan, who had a cracker of a match, took two defenders (the unfortunate Suresh and Bolaji again) in his stride with a delectable backheel and gave a hopeful ball to Rafat. The Iraqi wasted no time in defeating Paul once more. 2-1. His sniper-like instincts and the knack of being at the right place at the right time proved his class.

If anyone thought the first half couldn’t get any better, he was mistaken.

In a move frightfully similar to the one which earned East Bengal their first goal, Mehtab cleared the midfield with a long ball. The Al Wihdat defence, for some unknown reason, was caught napping. Edmilson took all the time in the world to trap it with his left foot and unleash a lethal right-footer off 25 yards. 2-2.

This is when the game turned on its head. Al Wihdat, 10-time Jordanian premier league winners, took up their game a notch or two. In terms of basics — speed, anticipation, of-the-ball and on-the-ball movements — they strutted their stuff and caught East Bengal thoroughly outpaced.

Their third goal, match’s fifth, came in the 31st minute. Khalil’s searching pass was fully utilised by No.5 Mahmoud Hasan. It also didn’t help that Debabrata Roy was horribly out of sync when he should have marked Hasan closely. 3-2.

Al Wihdat’s fourth goal was an unbelievable one. When the entire East Bengal defence was slowly moving up after a goalkick, Mehtab Hussain inexplicably gave a limp backpass to goalie Paul. Before the ball could reach him, and with the defence still caught in willing suspension of disbelief, Hasan gleefully accepted the ball and pushed it past Paul. The ball hit the post and trickled in. 4-2.

The coach would later term it as the turning point of the match. Debatable.

The second half had nothing to show by way of score or even attempts. Except Edmilson’s red card (double yellow in the 74th and 75th minutes) that saw East Bengal being reduced to 10 men, both sides seemed happy with the result.

An unfortunate reflection of how the game is played here, that.

TEAMS

Al Wihdat: Mahmoud Qandil, Haitham Semrin, Hayder Kadhem, Mohammad Jarrar, Faisal Ibrahim, Jaber Rafat, Musab Al-Rifae, Amer Khalil (Hammad Mosa), Issa Alsapah (Bamba Abdouramane), Basem Othman (Fadi Shahin), Mahmoud Hasan.

East Bengal: Subrata Paul, Surkumar Singh, M. Suresh (Jayanta Sen), M. Bolaji, Debabrata Roy; Mehrajuddin Wadao, Mehtab Hussain, Gift (Vinu Jose), Alvito D'Cunha, Syed Rahim Nabi, Edmilson.

Referee: Minh Tri Vo (Vietnam).

PERMUTATIONS AND COMBINATIONS

• A win over Safa FC at home on April 30 would almost place EB in the quarters

• Ahli Sana’s win over Safa would brighten EB’s chances

• If EB lose to Safa, they must beat Sana’a away in their last group match

• Al Wihdat losing their next two matches would be beneficial for EB