East Bengal’s woeful season continues. After the ISL-XI setback where they failed to seal a playoff berth again, East Bengal’s fate in the AFC Challenge League is hanging by a thread. They lost to FC Arkadag of Turkmenistan 1-0 at the Salt Lake Stadium. The return leg will be at Arkadag on March 12.

Yazgylych Gurbanov scored the all-important goal in the 10th minute. Gurbanov got the ball outside the 18-yard box, used East Bengal defender Lalchungnunga as a shield and drilled a right-footer into the left corner of the goal past a diving Prabhsukhan Gill. A delightful goal that silenced the 20,000 spectators.

At the stroke of half-time, Gurbanov was denied his second. Gurbanov’s header had goal written on it but Gill came up with a fantastic reflex save.

A minute later, East Bengal’s Messi Bouli could have equalised but a last moment block by a FC Arkadag defender kept the visitors ahead.

In the second half, East Bengal’s Richard Celis missed a sitter as he failed to head home with an empty net in front of him. Celis was guilty of muffing another chance when his poor side volley was easily saved by Arkadag goalkeeper Charyyev Rasul.

Arkadag came with a plan. They did not want to concede goal on the road and were successful in that. Time and again they sat back and soaked in the pressure applied by East Bengal and deservingly head home with a goal advantage.