The Mohun Bagan vs East Bengal fixture, popularly known as the Kolkata Derby is a 100-year-old footballing rivalry with a rich history. The match is locally known as the ‘boro match’ which means ‘big match’ in Bengali. The first match between these two sides was played on 8 August 1921 in the Coochbehar cup, which ended as a goalless stalemate. Since then, both of these sides have battled it out against each other around 382 times, in which, East Bengal came out victorious 132 times and Mohun Bagan won 125 games. The rest of the games ended in a draw.

Both East Bengal and Mohun Bagan joined the Hero ISL two seasons back.  Ahead of the first ISL fixture that is going to be played in front of home fans in Kolkata, we take a look at some of the memorable games between these two sides over the last 10-12 years

East Bengal 3-3 Mohun Bagan, East Bengal won 3-2 on penalties (Mohammedan sporting platinum jubilee cup, November 14, 2010)

To commemorate their maiden triumph of the prestigious Calcutta Football League in 1934, the Mohammedan sporting club organized the platinum jubilee cup with Mohun Bagan, East Bengal, and the world’s first-ever football club Sheffield FC being the participants. Mohun Bagan and East Bengal made it to the final of the two-day contest and produced a goal-fest. Alvito D’cunha put East Bengal in front in the stoppage time of the first half, but Mohun Bagan returned in the second half with goals from Satish Kumar and Ashim Biswas giving them the lead. Their celebrations didn’t last long as Robin Singh equalized for East Bengal and the game went to extra time. East Bengal looked to have won it when Robin scored again in the extra time to make it 3-2 in the 101st minute of the game. But, Mohun Bagan responded well and Harpreet Singh’s strike took the final to penalties, which East Bengal won 3-2.

East Bengal 3-0 Mohun Bagan (I-league 2012)

A wave of violence erupted at the Salt Lake Stadium as this derby fixture was forced to be called off. 

It all started when East Bengal took the lead through Harmanjot Khabra from a Mehtab Hussain freekick in the 43rd minute of the game. Things started to heat up when Bagan’s star recruit Odafa Okolie was given a straight red card by referee Vishnu Chauhan for expressing his displeasure. Soon after the incident, Mohun Bagan fans started pelting stones and bricks at the field, one of them hitting a Mohun Bagan midfielder Syed Rahim Nabi’s face. He was quickly hospitalized and Bagan players came off the field. The match was then called off after Bagan refused to field their player’s in the second half. Mohun Bagan was given a two-year suspension for the same reason.

East Bengal 4-0 Mohun Bagan (2015)

East Bengal clinched the Calcutta Football League title for the 6th consecutive time by thrashing Mohun Bagan 4-0 in their penultimate game of the league.

In front of a packed 65000 crowd at the Salt Lake Stadium, East Bengal’s South Korean star recruit Do Dong-Hyun netted two freekicks in the first half while goals from Muhammad Rafique and Rahul Bheke in the second half completed a 4-0 rout against their arch-rivals, Mohun Bagan.

Mohun Bagan 2-1 East Bengal (I-league 2019)

This was the last Kolkata Derby game in the I-league era. Mohun Bagan made it one to remember as goals from Joseba Betia and Baba Diawara on either side of the break gave the Mariners 3 points and the much-needed edge in their title race with East Bengal’s consolation goal coming from Marco’s Jimenez in the 72nd minute being too late.

ATK Mohun Bagan 3-1 SC East Bengal 

One of the dramatic encounters between the two sides in the ISL has to be the 2021 fixture where a young Kiyan Nassiri, son of former East Bengal legend Jamshad Nassiri stunned the red and gold with his second-half hat-trick heroics that won the game for the Mariners. Darren Sidoel had given East Bengal the lead in the 56th minute of the game, but Kiyan came on and soon equalized in the 64′ minute, However, his dramatic double strike deep in the injury time killed the game for East Bengal as Mariners extended their winning streak against the rivals.

Today as Kolkata prepares for another derby day, it will be interesting to see whether Juan Ferrando’s high-flying ATK Mohun Bagan come on top or will it be Stephen Constantine’s pragmatic East Bengal that breaks the jinx, either ways expect a high-octane encounter.

Photo Credit – ISL Media

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Atletico De Kolkata Vs Mumbai City FC

The evening game followed a lovely opening ceremony hosted by bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra.

Fikru Tefera Lemessa (27^th min), Borja Fernandes (69^th) and Arnal Llibert (90+) scored the goals for the hosts with the second and third coming against the run of play. As the match statistics prove, Mumbai City FC had more possession and more attempts on goal but just could not convert them into goals.

With the match being played on the artificial turf of the Salt Lake stadium, Mumbai City FC needed some time to settle down but their custodian Subrata Pal was on the ball from the very first minute and came to the rescue of the team twice in the first 10 minutes.

With Mumbai choosing to play an attacking strategy with a high defence line, it was clear that the goalkeeper would have a major role to play whenever the opposition managed to break the stranglehold and push forward.

Pal was called into action in the seventh minute itself when he left his line early to stop Baljit Sahni from converting a through pass from Luis Garcia. Three minutes later, India international was once again at the right place to block Garcia’s left-footed volley from the six yard box to keep Mumbai City FC in the hunt.

But the 27-year-old stopper failed to stop Fikru Teferra from giving the hosts the lead when he latched on to another through pass from Garcia to chip the ball over the advancing Pal.

The goal, however, did little to dampen the spirit of the Mumbai City FC players as they grew confident as the game progressed and the team earned a couple of free-kicks near the opponent’s citadel, before a twisted ankle forced skipper Syed Rahim Nabi to be substituted in the 39^th minute and forcing coach Peter Reid to re-arrange his troops.

The introduction of Brazilian born Italian midfielder Andre Moritz brought more bite to Mumbai City FC’s attack as they made a couple of threatening moves down the left flank. At this stage the visitors had more shots on goal than their opponents but an act of brilliance from Spaniard Borja Fernandez beat Pal from a long range to make it 2-0 for Atletico de Kolkata in the 69^th minute against the run of play.

Mumbai City FC continued to press forward to find their first goal of the game but Atletico de Kolkata custodian Subashish Roy Choudhary first deflected Cmovs’s long ranger that was deflected off a defender and then kept out a close range header of Manuel Friedrich to keep the hosts in the driver’s seat.

And the injury time goal from Arnal Llibert on the counter ended Mumbai City FC’s hopes of a later turnaround.

Coach Reid looks at positives

Mumbai City FC coach Peter Reid gave full credit to opponents Atletico de Kolkata and said he was confident of his team fighting back next week. “The first one didn’t go our way, but I am hopeful we will turn things around next week. Credit to our opponents for the way they played today, especially Louis Garcia, the way he led them.”

Mumbai City FC goalkeeper Subrata Pal also said that the the atmosphere in the team was quite positive after Sunday’s game, and the team is confident of doing well in the future games.

Result: Atletico de Kolkata 3 (Fikru Tefera Lemessa 27, Borja Fernandes 69 Arnal Llibert 90+) beat Mumbai City FC 0

Hero of the Match: Borja Fernandes; Amul Fit player Award: Denzil Franco; Swift moment of the Match: Fikru Tefera Lemessa; Emerging player of the Match: Subhashish Roy Chowdhury.

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