---
title: "East Bengal enter main draw by beating Sabah FC in Kota Kinabalu; biggest ever Indian club win in Asian competition"
sdDatePublished: "2026-08-24T13:46:00Z"
source: "https://www.olympics.com/en/news/afc-women-champions-league-2026-27-east-bengal-vs-sabah-fc-match-report"
topics:
  - name: "football"
    identifier: "medtop:20001065"
locations:
  - "Kota Kinabalu"
  - "Kolkata"
  - "Malaysia"
  - "India"
  - "Guam"
  - "Bangladesh"
---


East Bengal enter main draw by beating Sabah FC in Kota Kinabalu; biggest ever Indian club win in Asian competition

AFC Women’s Champions League 2026-27: East Bengal enter main draw for second successive year after beating Sabah FC

AFC Women’s Champions League 2026-27: East Bengal enter main draw for second successive year after beating Sabah FC

The Moshal Girls finished the preliminary stage with a perfect record, scoring 18 goals without conceding across their three matches.

Indian football club East Bengal entered the main draw of the AFC Women’s Champions League 2026-27 by beating Malaysia's Sabah FC 2-0 in their final Group A preliminary-stage match in Kota Kinabalu, on Sunday.

Ghanaian Olivia Anokye (67’) and Soumya Guguloth (88’) scored in the second half to help the Moshal Girls complete the preliminary round with a perfect record.

They began their Group A campaign with a 4-0 victory over Bangladesh’s Rajshahi Stars before following up with a 12-0 win against Guam’s Rovers FC.

Nine different East Bengal players got on the scoresheet against Rovers on Thursday as the Moshal Girls made history with the biggest-ever win by an Indian club in an Asian competition, across both men’s and women’s football .

The win helped East Bengal earn successive group stage qualification in the AWCL. The Kolkata giants also made it beyond the AFC Women’s Champions League preliminary stage last season, becoming the first Indian football club to win a group stage match in the competition.

East Bengal now have both their men’s and women’s teams competing in the AFC group stages in the same season.

The men’s team, who won the Durand Cup earlier on Sunday, will compete in the AFC Champions League Two 2026-27 main stage.

After a goalless first half, Olivia Anokye, who scored twice in the previous match against Rovers FC, broke the deadlock in the 67th minute courtesy of a brilliant piece of individual play that ended with her firing into the back of the net.

The Moshal Girls continued to dominate hosts Sabah FC after taking the lead and eventually sealed the contest two minutes before regulation time thanks to a first-time finish by Soumya Guguloth.

East Bengal will now enter a separate draw in September, with matches set to begin in November.

The 12 teams in the main draw will be divided into three groups of four for the AFC Women’s Champions League 2026-27 season.

Picture by All India Football Federation

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