East Bengal’s 0-1 defeat to Al Faisaly is a tale of two penalties---one given and another denied.

Jordan's Al Faisaly converted the 28th minute penalty to make sure they entered the quarter finals stage of the AFC Cup while East Bengal’s wretched run in the AFC Cup continued.

While Faisaly’s tally swelled to 10 points, East ebngal continued to remain on one point.

East Bengal, after a string of defeats in the Continental club contest, failed to make much of the home advantage even after the visitors were reduced to 10 men for the last 21 minutes of the game.

Al Faisaly captain Hatem Yousef Aqel scored from the spot after his team-mate, Saman Halasa, earned a penalty, courtesy M. Suresh's harsh tackle inside the box.

The first session belonged to Al Faisaly and made several forays only to fail at the packed goalmouth. The contest would have ended barren had not Suresh acted in haste tackling Halasa off the ball inside the box. The Uzbekistan referee, Irmatov Ravshan, suddenly pointed to the spot and Yousef Aqel made no mistake in converting the kick.

For East Bengal the defenders in general and Marcos, Suresh and Debjit in particular did a brilliant job of containing the Faisaly attack till their own box.

With all his defence-oriented plans negated by the penalty, East Bengal coach Subhash Bhowmick had to fall back on his trusted lieutenants — Bhaichung Bhutia and Alvito D'Cunha. The two players were introduced in the second session and this transformed the East Bengal's approach. The visitors were soon reduced to 10 men as Al Faisaly's midfielder Qusai Abu Alieh was given marching orders following his second booking in the 69th minute.

Rahim Nabi missed a sitter. Baichung failed to reach a cross from Alvito. Alvito failed to reach his left boot to ball that rolled menacing past the rival goal.In between Almermeh and Altalah tested Rajat with a couple of long rangers that brought the best out of the host keeper.

The last minute action saw East Bengal's Nigerian recruit Earnest Jeremiah directing his header off a Bhutia floater well past the reach of Faisaly custodian Salem Elamaireh, but the upright came in the way of spoiling the host's party.

Later, East Bengal coach Subhash Bhowmick contested the penalty alleging that Suresh had hit the ball first. He also regretted that East Bengal were denied a genuine penalty when Arkan Shamoun handled the ball inside the Faisaly box.