East Bengal crush Bashundhara Kings 4-0 in AFC Challenge League

East Bengal register first win of the AFC Challenge League, defeating Basundhara Kings 4-0 (Image X)

Indian club East Bengal produced an utterly dominant show to crush Bangladesh's Bashundhara Kings 4-0 in their AFC Challenge League match here on Tuesday. Struggling at the bottom of the 13-team table in the Indian Super League, East Bengal looked a far cry on the day in the continental tournament, opening the scoring as early as the first minute through Dimitrios Diamantakos' left-footed shot from the centre of the box off a Lal Chungnunga cross.

An absolute screamer from midfielder Souvik Chakrabarti helped East Bengal double the lead in the 20th minute, the player striking from outside the box to the top right corner. After an assist by Madih Talal, Nandhakumar Sekar's right-footed shot from the left side of the box made it 3-0 for East Bengal at the Changlimithang Stadium.

More miseries awaited Bashundhara Kings as stopper Anwar Ali this time got his name on the scoresheet with an excellent goal, as the ball curled in after his left-footed shot from outside the box.

Again, the Bangladesh outfit displayed poor defending as they failed to clear the ball into safety. Having run their opponents ragged, East Bengal went into half time leading 4-0 and there was no let up intensity as proceedings began in the second half in their second group stage fixture. Bashundhara Kings had their share of chances but they could not convert them.

The Red and Gold Brigade opened their campaign with a 2-2 draw against home team Paro FC. On the other hand, Bashundhara Kings came into match after a 0-1 loss to current table-toppers Nejmeh SC from Lebanon.