Kolkata: FC Arkadag carved out a hard-fought 1-0 win over India’s East Bengal in their AFC Challenge League 2024-25 quarter-final first leg tie at the Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan Stadium on Wednesday.
The Turkmenistan side, playing on the defensive for a large part of the match, will look to further block a more experienced Indian team when they meet in the second leg next week.
East Bengal showed their familiarity with playing in the big leagues as they took control from the start against a Turkmenistan side appearing in an AFC competition for the first time.
It was Arkadag, however, who scored in the 11th minute when Yazgylych Gurbanov side-stepped a defender and sent a solid shot from outside the box that went past a lunging Prabhsukhan Singh and into the bottom left corner.
East Bengal’s Saul Crespo tried his luck in the 24th minute but his shot from just outside the box was blocked by one of several Arkadag defenders falling back whenever their opponents went on the offensive.
With East Bengal stymied time and time again, Arkadag had another shot at goal on the stroke of half time when Gurbanov outpaced his markers to latch on to a pass from Didar Durdiyev, only to head right into Prabhsukhan’s legs from close range.
Messi Bouli then had Arkadag keeper Rasul Charyyev on his toes a minute into time added on, but pressured by three defenders, ballooned his shot from inside the box over the bar.
Arkadag started more strongly after the break, and captain Adby Bashimov saw his first time effort from a Mirza Beknazarov free-kick in the 59th minute float over Prabhsukhan only to find the crossbar in the way.
East Bengal kept pushing forward, but attempts in the 71st minute by Crespo and Richard Sanchez, who headed over the bar from close range, came to naught with the Indian side having it all to do in the return leg next week.
AFC Media
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