Agencies
Kalyani
Almost twenty-one years since an East Bengal team last won a league title in Indian football, the club’s women’s team sealed the Indian Women’s League trophy with a careful and tight 1-0 victory over defending champions Odisha FC. To add further salt, Odisha are now prime placed to suffer relegation, their fate not entirely in their own hands with one game left. Soumya Guguloth scored the winning goal in the 67th minute.
With the IWL title, East Bengal FC have also qualified for the AFC Women’s Champions League 2025-26.
In their third season in the women’s top division, East Bengal halted all challenges with ease. They have beaten all teams, bar one — Gokulam Kerala — in the league this season and will no doubt look to amend that statistic heading into the final game of the season on April 18 when they will also be officially handed the trophy in Kalyani.
Despite thoroughly dominating the first half, East Bengal’s sudden freeze in front of goal extended into this game, too. Their forward trio of Maurine Achieng, Soumya Guguloth and Elshaddai Acheampong were guilty of not finishing good chances throughout the first half an hour.
The best of these fell to Achieng, who forced a brilliant diving save from Nandini off a sharp header from Sandhiya Ranganathan’s cross in the 35th minute. The next period of the game belonged to Odisha though, with Pyari Xaxa almost single-handedly bursting through East Bengal’s experienced defensive line before firing high when faced with just Panthoi Chanu to beat.
In a chaotic end to the half, both teams traded more chances, Xaxa’s header from a corner cleared by Karthika, and Acheampong’s long-range curling just wide.
