After seeing off one local team in the quarter-finals, East Bengal run into Indonesian League champions Petrokimia Putra in the semi-finals of the inaugural ASEAN Club football championship in Jakarta on Thursday.
A victory will see the red and gold brigade become the first Indian club to make it to the final of an Asian level tournament. A quarter-final league appearance in the Asian Club Championships in 1985 was East Bengal's best showing till now.
There's no doubt that it is going to be a close contest between the National Football League champions from Kolkata and Putra, who came back from two goals down to beat SAFFC of Singapore via a golden goal in the quarter-finals.
The Kolkatans, a guest side in the tournament, who stunned Persita Tangerang in the last eight round, will however kick-off with a slight edge against Putra. The locals will have plenty of support but they will also be under pressure to perform on their home turf.
Assured of US $10,000 irrespective of tomorrow's result, East Bengal's campaign can become more lucrative if they make it to the final, as the champions take home a purse of US $50,000 and the runners-up $30,000. The third place winner will get $20,000.
East Bengal coach Subash Bhowmick is hoping that his players, especially the star cast, carry on their good work.
Baichung Bhutia has been in great form and the Sikimmese, who feels that this tournament will be a test for Indian soccer, leads the goal scorer's chart with six strikes, five of which came against Army FC, Philippines. His nearest challenger is Terdsak Chaiman of BEC Tero Sasana, Thailand with three goals.
With Brazilian Douglas De Silva marshalling the midfield and skipper Suley Musah showing the power and stamina of the African continent, East Bengal will be ruing the injury to another key player, Mike Okorro, who is still recuperating. It remains to be seen whether Bhowmick will field him in tomorrow's match.
Sandip Nandy has shown a lot of promise with his goalkeeping in this tournament which has prolonged the comeback bid of main 'keeper Sangram Mukherjee.
The defence almost measured up to the challenge in the opening match defeat against the Thai champions but since then held its own despite some disputable refereeing decisions that went against them.
With key player Debjit Ghosh ruled out with injury, following a freak collision in the quarter-final match, East Bengal will start with both Bijen Singh and Shylo Malsawmtluanga, who took turns to play in the earlier matches.
Putra, on the other hand, showed their mettle, coming back to win after trailing by two goals 22nd minutes into their quarter-final. Clawing their way back, they eventually celebrated after Danili Fernando netted a golden goal in the 113th minute.
East Bengal just cannot lower their guard against such an opponent and all signs point to another tense contest at a golden venue for Indian football, where they won the Asiad crown way back in 1962.
