Kathmandu: East Bengal FC etched their name in the history books after lifting the inaugural SAFF Women’s Club Championship 2025 title after a commanding 3-0 victory over Nepal’s APF (Armed Police Forces) in the final at the Dasharath Stadium in Kathmandu on Saturday, reports IANS.
The Indian Women's League (IWL) champions recently capped off an undefeated season, winning all of their matches and not conceding in any.
For the second time in the competition, Ugandan striker Fazila Ikwaput proved that she can perform at a high level, scoring both of her team's goals in the finals (21 & 46 minutes), taking her tournament total to nine goals.
The next best player for East Bengal was Shilky Devi Hemam, who scored the second goal of the finals (35 minutes), which put East Bengal in complete control of the finals.
Coach Anthony Andrews, who led East Bengal through group play in the IWL, directed his team to the finals after finishing first in their group. East Bengal began group play strongly, defeating Transport United, from Bhutan, by a scoreline of 4-0. The next match saw East Bengal score a 2-0 victory over the defending champions of Karachi City from Pakistan. East Bengal's most impressive result was a 7-0 defeat of Nasrin from Bangladesh, in which Fazila Ikwaput scored five goals in a single game.
In the group stage of the IWL, the only team to hold East Bengal to a draw (0-0) was APF. APF's goalkeeper Anjana Rana Magar had a sensational game, keeping East Bengal from scoring. Unfortunately, for the Nepali side, they were not able to duplicate that performance in the finals.
On Saturday, both teams started cautiously at first before East Bengal took control of the match and looked stronger. Ikwaput opened up the scoring for them in the 20th minute, followed by Shilky Devi scoring a goal just before halftime for East Bengal, taking an emphatic 2-0 lead into the break. After halftime, Ikwaput found the back of the net again to put the match away.
East Bengal were able to manage the game in a professional manner after building up a three-goal lead and ultimately came away with the championship. Furthermore, they accomplished this without being scored on in the entire tournament, with four wins and one draw, as well as being crowned the first-ever champions of the SAFF Women's Club Championship.