East Bengal Coach Praises Team's Performance Despite AFC Women's Champions League Exit

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East Bengal's coach Anthony Andrews expressed pride in his team's performance despite their exit from the AFC Women's Champions League. The team put up a strong fight, holding off opponents for most of the game before ultimately losing to FC Nasaf. In an interview from Wuhan, China, Andrews acknowledged that his team was not expected to win a single game, including the qualifiers. However, they not only qualified but also won two and drew one out of five matches. Their exit was due to a crucial error that allowed Nasaf to score the third goal, but Andrews attributed it to the team's inexperience in playing high-intensity matches. The players, mostly between 17 and 20 years old, gained valuable experience and exposure to the level of competition they will face in the future. Andrews pointed out that the team's biggest gain was the exposure to 'high-intensity' games, which will help them in their upcoming matches, including the Women's Asian Cup in Australia. The Indian players in the team, including Elangbam Panthoi, Sweety Devi, and Shilky Devi, took on players from China's national team at Wuhan Jiangda, giving them a taste of the level of competition they can expect. The team faced several challenges, including visa issues, injuries, and a lack of competition at home. However, Andrews praised the team's efforts and said they achieved more than what was expected of them. With the Asian challenge over, East Bengal will now focus on the SAFF club competition next month, followed by the Indian Women's League. The team will have to prune two foreign players as the SAFF tournament and IWL allow only three registered and fielded players.