Dani Ramírez scored inside two minutes, and Bipin Singh’s late double gave East Bengal a 4-0 win over Churchill Brothers
The ISL champions finally started their title defence at Fatorda on Sunday, and Churchill Brothers, unbeaten after one game, were beaten by four.
Oct 18, 2026
East Bengal had to wait about a week longer than everyone else to start their ISL title defence, because of their AFC Champions League Two fixtures. Dani Ramírez needed two minutes to make up for it. His free-kick started a 4-0 win over Churchill Brothers at the PJN Stadium in Fatorda on Sunday, the biggest win of the 2026-27 season so far.
Edmund Lalrindika added a second before half-time. Bipin Singh came off the bench and scored twice in the last five minutes.
Ramírez, and then a long spell of Churchill pressure
Ramírez, one of Antonio López Habas’s summer signings, hit the free-kick left-footed from just outside the box and curled it into the top-left corner. Sayad Kadir in the Churchill goal had no real chance.
Churchill did not fold. They lifted the tempo, came close to an equaliser and hit the woodwork, and for a while the game looked more even than the score. East Bengal kept their shape, and near the end of the half they scored again. David Hmar took the ball on the left, held it up and picked out Lalrindika, who timed his run into the box and finished past Kadir.
Bipin finishes it
The second half was more open, with chances at both ends, but Churchill could not make theirs count in the final third. Habas sent on Bipin Singh, and with five minutes left the winger curled a shot into the top corner for 3-0. Five minutes after that, PV Vishnu crossed from the left and Bipin finished again.
That makes for a far better week than it looked like being on Tuesday. East Bengal led Al Shorta 2-1 at half-time in Kolkata and lost 3-2, and Habas said afterwards that his side had made five or six clear chances. On Sunday they took four.
What comes next
Churchill are in the ISL only because they took over Jamshedpur FC in the summer, licence and contracts included, after Tata Steel pulled out. They had about three and a half weeks to prepare and still beat Mumbai City 2-1 on 11 October, so a heavy defeat to the champions is no reason to panic. They play Punjab FC next.
East Bengal’s next continental trip is to Oman, where they face Al-Seeb in the Champions League Two on 27 October. They have one point from their first two group games, after the 2-2 draw with Al Hussein and Tuesday’s defeat.