Kolkata: When Anthony Andrews spoke of challenges ahead of the preliminary round of the AFC Women’s Champions League, the East Bengal head coach meant missing key players and hoping one didn’t miss connections from Casablanca to Sabah in Malaysia before Monday’s opening game.
To say East Bengal could be hard hit by Fazila Ikwaput’s absence is understating the obvious. The Uganda international was prolific in the 2025-26 Indian Women’s League scoring 18 goals in 13 matches as defending champions East Bengal made the title race a procession, finishing the season 14 points ahead of second-placed Sethu FC. It earned them a berth in Asia for the second successive season.
It was a goal and an assist from Ikwaput, 25, that took East Bengal past Phnom Penh Crown and Kitchee FC at this stage last year and to the main round where they were a couple of stoppage-time minutes away from being among Asia’s top eight clubs.
Along with left-side attacker Resty Nanziri, Ikwaput will be missing this round because of travel restrictions following the outbreak of the Ebola virus.
“It is a big setback. Fazila is a poacher,” Andrews told HT on Friday before leaving for Malaysia. “They understand how we want to play as a team. They are part of the team’s core.”
Playing India forwards Rimpa Haldar and Priyanka Naorem as false nine can be a way of getting around Ikwaput’s absence, said Andrews. “We need to be smart.” He didn’t rule out getting new signing Olivia Anokye involved in the front third either.
Anokye is an attacking midfielder and one of the four Ghanaians who complete East Bengal’s foreign contingent along with defender Adama Alhassan, forward Abigail Antwi and central defender Abena Opoku.
With a bunch of local players who have made the first team this season, East Bengal trained in Kalyani, nearly 55km away from Kolkata, for one month and played training games with local under-18 boys teams. In that time, Andrews also liaised with Ghana’s staff in Casablanca so that Opoku doesn’t miss the first game against Bangladesh’s Rajshahi Stars.
Ghana finished their engagements in the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations with a come-from-behind win against Ivory Coast on Thursday that kept them in contention for a berth in the 2027 World Cup.
But it also meant “she missed our pre-season,” said Andrews, 30. Then the other three were in Kalyani but none completed even half the pre-season, said the head coach.
Add missing India players Karthika Angamuthu and Sandhiya Ranganathan because they had employers’ commitments and Sweety Devi, also an international, to a long-term knee injury and it is not difficult to understand why Andrews, in his third season at East Bengal, said preparations in 2025 was better.
“We were clear about the players we wanted and the logistics was better. This time, we knew whom we wanted but some of the things, like grounds not being available due to rain and players barred from travelling, were taken out of our hands.”
And yet, against teams from Guam (Rovers FC), Malaysia (Sabah FA) and Bangladesh, East Bengal, their core of India players retained, start favourites in Group A from where only the winners will qualify to the finals.
“In terms of FIFA rankings those countries are well behind us,” said Andrews. “But Bangladesh have made significant strides in women’s football and many of their national team players are with Rajshahi. And they are likely to have six foreigners. The first game is a big challenge.
“I love it when people talk about us being favourites but I don’t know if we are. I believe that over the years, we have built a team with the right attitude. What I can say is that no team will have it easy against us. The time to test ourselves has come.”
