Erbil SC beat East Bengal by a brace in the Group B AFC Cup match played today evening at Francouse Al-Hareeri Stadium, Arbil, Iraq.

Syrian midfielder  Abdelrazzak Al-Husein scored the both goals converting two spot kicks in the 45th and 46th minute minute of play. Both the penalties resulted from the foul on Muslim Mubarak inside the box by Robert Lathlamuana.

Erbil made a bright start to the contest as Nabeel Sabah hit the East Bengal crossbar after 13 minutes, but the home side had to wait until stoppage time at the end of the first half to find a breakthrough.

Muslim Mubarak was fouled inside the penalty area and Al Husein made no mistake from the spot as the Syrian striker beat East Bengal goalkeeper Nandy Sandip.

And just two minutes into the second half Mubarak was again upended inside the area, this time by Robert Lalthlamuana, and Al Husein drilled the resulting penalty down the middle giving Sandip no chance as East Bengal saw their qualification hopes ended after a fourth consecutive defeat.

East Bengal had major share of the exchanges in the second half. Erbil goal keeper Sarhank Mohsin was the best player on the field with five brilliant saves. In fact he saved certain goals from strikes by Mehtab Hossein, Edmilson (twice), Penn and Nirmal Chhetri. For East Bengal Penn Orji,Mehtab,Gurwinder Sanju,Uga and Saumik had an outstanding game.This was definitely one of the best matches East Bengal played in the AFC Cup.

KINGFISHER EAST BENGAL: Sandip Nandi, Nirmal Chettri, Gurwinder Singh, Uga Okpara, Robert Lalthlamuana (Saumik Dey), Sanju Pradhan, Mehtab Hossain, Penn Orji, Subodh Kumar, Robin Singh, Edmilson Marques

POST  MATCH  CONFERENCE

In the Post match press conference East Bengal's coach Ranjan Chaudhury said that they were unlucky to lose as the goals came from penalties awarded by the Lebanese referee. The match was even in the first half byt EB definitely had lion's share of the exchanges in the second half. 

As they are out of the competition the next two matches will be played by the club to gather international experience which will also enable them to strive for the I League title. He also mentioned that the ground was uneven and the strong wind which was blowing did not have any impact in their game.