Jakarta, July 16: Baichung Bhutia struck five consecutive times as East Bengal almost assured themselves a berth in the quarterfinals of Asean Club football championship with a 6-0 rout of Army Football Club of Philippines here today. After going down to Thai champions Bec Tero Sasana 0-1 in their opening Group D match, today's big win has virtually paved the way for a last eight berth for the Kolkata side with the top two teams from each group progressing to the quarterfinals.
East Bengal now tops Group D with three points with a goal average of plus five. In the last group match, the Thai side will clash with army FC on friday.
It was all one way traffic after the two teams got a feel of the turf with Bhutia fine tuning his shooting skills for the tougher matches ahead.
He struck in the 23rd and 24th minutes as East Bengal lead 2-0 at the break. Changing ends, Bhutia completed his hattrick in the 49th minute before slamming two more in the 51st and 60th minute as the Philipinos trailed 0-5.
Bhutia missed a double hattrick when he failed to connect a header in the 70th minute and an onrushing Mahesh Gawli fixed it with a powerful strike making it a rare half dozen.

Bureau Report