Group B has all the ingredients for a potential 'Group of Death', featuring ISL sides FC Goa and Jamshedpur FC, alongside I-League side Sudeva FC and 2016 Durand Cup winners Army Green.
Bengaluru FC defeated Maldivian side Maziya Sports & Recreation 6-2 in their AFC Cup Group D South Zone encounter.
Although both sides are out of the running for the knockout stages of the competition.
Bengaluru FC will take on Bangladesh's Bashundhara Kings in their second group game of the AFC Cup.
Bengaluru FC head coach Marco Pezzaiuoli wants his team to be sharp against fellow Indian Super League (ISL) outfit ATK Mohun Bagan when the teams clash in the AFC Cup Group D South Zone opener at the National Football Stadium in here later on Wednesday.
The solitary goal win took Marco Pezzaiuoli's men into Group D of the continental competition, where ATK Mohun Bagan, Bashundhara Kings and Maziya S&RC await.
The winners of the playoff, initially scheduled to be played in May but postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, will advance to Group D of the 2021 AFC Cup.
Chhetri, who has scored 74 goals from 118 matches for India, said he now feels BFC and the city as 'just like home'.
Top Indian football striker Sunil Chhetri has signed a new two-year contract with Bengaluru FC that will keep him with the Indian Super League (ISL) side until 2023.
As head coach of the Bengaluru FC reserve team, he guided the Blue Colts to back-to-back BDFA Super Division League title wins in 2019 and 2020.
Bengaluru FC were scheduled to face local club Eagles FC in a playoff match after which the Group D matches were scheduled to start on May 14 with fellow Indian Super League (ISL) side ATK Mohun Bagan facing the winners of the playoff.
Maldives is hosting the play-off match and all the Group D matches as the AFC wanted single venues in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Sunil Chhetri-led side had crushed Nepalese club Tribhuvan Army FC 5-0 in their AFC Cup Preliminary Round 2 clash.
Bengaluru FC have been in Goa for little over four weeks, living in a bio-secure bubble.
Bengaluru FC, who won the ISL in 2018-19, finished seventh in the previous season -- their worst showing since becoming a part of the ISL in 2017-18.
Sunil Chhetri had tested positive for coronavirus on March 11 and announced that he had recovered from the infection on March 28.
For Bengaluru, this is the first time that they have failed to qualify for the ISL playoffs.
Bengaluru led 2-0 through goals from Sunil Chhetri in the ninth minute and Leon Augustine in the 61st.
An acrobatic first-half effort from Cleiton Silva (24th) handed Bengaluru the lead before substitute Lalthathanga Khawlhring netted an equaliser (73rd) for Kerala Blasters.
The Kolkata team is now unbeaten in their last five games, while BFC's misery continued with their fourth consecutive defeat this season.
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