East Bengal to host Group D leaders Al-Shorta at VYBK on 13 October in AFC Champions League Two
East Bengal FC will host Al-Shorta SC at VYBK in Kolkata on 13 October 2026 in an AFC Champions League Two Group D match, following a 2-2 draw for the Indian side in match week one against Al Hussein. The fixture sees East Bengal meet the group leaders as they return to continental competition at home for the first time in over a decade.
The match comes amid local sensitivities: the fixture falls close to Durga Puja and security concerns raised before the tournament had put the Salt Lake staging in question. This campaign is East Bengal’s ninth appearance in an AFC group stage and their first since 2015, when the competition was still called the AFC Cup. The tournament structure advances the top two teams from each four-team group to the Round of 16, raising the immediate stakes for both sides.
East Bengal opened their Group D programme with a 2-2 draw against Al Hussein and sit on one point after match week one. Their remaining home fixtures are listed in the source as against the Omani and Jordanian sides Al-Shorta & Al-Seeb respectively, and the club will travel to Baghdad on 8 December. The article notes that dropping points at home would force East Bengal into a chasing position before the halfway mark of the group.
Al-Shorta are described as one of Iraq’s most successful clubs with eight league titles and have appeared in the AFC Champions League Elite in each of the last two editions. They beat Al-Seeb 1-0 in Baghdad, with Hussein al Saedi scoring in the 51st minute from a Cristian Barco delivery. The night in Baghdad is characterised in the source as a match where the scoreline flattered the winner’s comfort.
The report details the Al-Seeb game as one in which Seeb defended in a compact block and ceded possession, with the breakthrough coming only after Al-Shorta increased ball speed and widened the pitch in the second half. The source states that a side requiring 51 minutes to break down a low block is vulnerable to a patient, deep-sitting opponent and poses the question of whether East Bengal will adopt that approach at home.
Domestically East Bengal are placed fifth after nine league matches, with four wins, four draws and one defeat, scoring nine goals and conceding four for 16 points. The piece contrasts that output — described as a goal a game — with last season’s return of 70 goals in 38 matches that finished in second place and notes a summer coaching change. The club’s two most recent Elite campaigns ended below the knockout line, and the report frames a run to the Round of 16 here as a route to regain standing.
Al-Shorta’s head coach Sami Trabelsi is identified as the club’s third coach in recent memory, announced on a one-season deal specifically to lead them in this competition. Trabelsi is described as a Tunisian with two separate spells in charge of Tunisia and a decade-long tenure at Qatar’s Al-Sailiya; his tactical identity is presented as a 4-3-3 built on controlled possession, wide width and rapid ball circulation. The Seeb performance is used in the source to illustrate those principles — patient build-up, faster circulation in the second half and stretching the pitch — while also noting the game gave no test of his approach to transitional situations.
Key Al-Shorta personnel noted in the article include the 26-year-old Hussein al Saedi, who returns after a season in the UAE First Division and scored six goals in 20 appearances for Dibba, and is described as an Iraq international and the team’s most direct goal threat. The Argentine Cristian Barco is said to have joined from Erbil, where he scored five goals and provided six assists in 23 games, and supplied the delivery for the winner against Al-Seeb; the piece underlines his role as the creative centre through final-third passing. The article also references a Colombian who arrived from Rionegro Águilas on a one-season loan, with no history in Asian football and adapting while anchoring a possession-based midfield, and suggests East Bengal forwards testing him early could be significant.
Al-Shorta top Group D with 3 points from one win, while East Bengal are second on 1 point from one draw, a position that will be clarified further after the match at VYBK on 13 October 2026.
