East Bengal FC secured a place in the quarter-final of the AFC Challenge League after a 3-2 win over Lebanon’s Nejmeh SC in their final group game in Thimphu on Friday.

Greek striker Dimitri Diamantakos continued his fine form in front of goal as he netted a brace to propel his team into the last eight of the competition.

The Red and Gold brigade who are having a tough time in the Indian Super League (ISL) with six defeats from as many matches have found form in Asia under the guidance of new head coach Oscar Bruzon and have ended the group stage unbeaten with seven points in their kitty.

East Bengal FC made a fast start to the match and were rewarded in the eighth minute when a Baba Musah own goal handed the early advantage. However, the Kolkata Giants didn’t take their foot off the pedal and continued to attack and scored again seven minutes later when Diamantakos tapped home a low cross from Naorem Mahesh Singh.

However, their lead was halved inside three minutes when Collins Opare scored for Nejmeh to make it an open contest again.

The Red and Gold brigade had a chance to restore their two-goal cushion in the 26th minute when Madih Talal came on the end of a miscued Diamantakos shot but the Frenchman fired his shot over.

Just when it seemed that Bruzon’s side would take their 2-1 lead into the interval, Hussain Monzer equalised for the Lebanese side to send the game level-pegging at the break.

The Red and Gold brigade, who needed a win to be assured of a place in the next round, brought on Provak Lakra in place of Hector Yuste in the 48th minute. They had a chance to regain the lead a minute later when Mahesh set up Nandhakumar Sekar inside the box but the winger failed to apply the finishing touches.

Nemjeh’s Kassem El Zein then forced a fine save from Prabshukhan Singh Gill in the 54th minute as East Bengal FC remained on parity. El Zein threatened again nine minutes later but Lakra did well to put in a timely block to deny the opponent.

Fifteen minutes from time, East Bengal FC won a penalty which was aptly put away by Diamantakos who scored his second of the game to put East Bengal FC in touching distance of the quarter-finals.

Bruzon replaced Mahesh with Jeakson Singh with an aim to protect the lead but the Red and Gold brigade could have added to their lead in stoppage time when Talal went though on the goal only for the goalkeeper to pull off a fine save.

The missed chance didn’t prove to be costly as East Bengal FC held on to reach the quarter-finals of the AFC Challenge League.

The best-placed runner-up to qualify for the quarter-final can only be from Group A or Group B which means the Red Gold Brigade will either face the winners of Group B or Oman’s Al-Seeb in the quarter-finals. As things stand, Nejmeh are frontrunners to book a place in the quarter-finals as the best-placed runners-up and if that status quo doesn’t change by the end of the final group games later on Friday then East Bengal FC will take on Oman’s Al-Seeb. But if one of the Group B teams qualify as the best-placed runners-up, then East Bengal FC will face the winners of Group B which can be any one team between Turkmenistan’s Arkadag, Kyrgyzstan's Abdysh-Ata Kant and Kuwait’s Al-Arabi.

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East Bengal FC2024-2025 Naorem Mahesh SinghDimitrios DiamantakosMadih Talal