The contest began with East Bengal looking dangerous in attack. Edmund Lalrindika, who had scored a hat-trick against Mohun Bagan in the Durand Cup final, came close to opening the scoring, but goalkeeper Vishal Kaith produced an important save to keep the Mariners in the game. Mohun Bagan gradually found their rhythm and began creating chances of their own, with Mehtab Singh going close with a header.

The breakthrough arrived just before half-time. Sahal Abdul Samad delivered a clever chipped pass into the penalty area, where Zeljkovic controlled the ball with his chest before calmly finishing to give Mohun Bagan the lead. The goal gave the defending champions a crucial advantage heading into the break.

East Bengal pushed forward after the restart in search of an equaliser, increasing the pressure as the match entered its closing stages. Lukasz Zwolinski came close with a header but failed to find the target, while Kaith made another important save to deny the Polish forward. Mohun Bagan’s defence remained organised under pressure, with Dejan Drazic also putting in a determined performance to help protect the lead.

Despite East Bengal’s late attempts, the Mariners held firm through seven minutes of stoppage time to secure the victory. The result offered Mohun Bagan a measure of revenge after their 4-1 defeat to East Bengal in the Durand Cup final in August and ensured they retained the IFA Shield crown.

For Mohun Bagan, the triumph adds another chapter to their rich history in the competition. For East Bengal, the narrow defeat will be disappointing after their emphatic run to the final, but the rivalry between Indian football’s two historic Kolkata clubs continues to deliver high-stakes encounters and memorable moments.

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The hosts wasted no time asserting control, striking as early as the sixth minute through Anwar Ali, whose ambitious long-range effort caught the goalkeeper off guard and nestled into the net. Their momentum only grew stronger as Youssef Ezzejjari doubled the lead from the penalty spot in the 14th minute. Mohammedan’s struggles deepened when they were reduced to ten men following a second booking, and East Bengal capitalised immediately with Saúl Crespo converting another penalty to make it 3-0 before the break.

The second half continued in the same vein, with East Bengal relentless in attack. Ezzejjari added his second of the night from yet another penalty, making it a rare instance of three spot-kicks converted by one team in a single ISL match. With complete control of the game, the hosts kept pushing forward, and PV Vishnu extended the lead further with a close-range finish.

Anwar Ali then capped off a standout performance by grabbing his brace, finishing calmly from inside the box to make it six. Substitute Nandha Kumar added the final flourish in stoppage time, sealing a historic 7-0 win that sent a strong message across the league.

The result sees East Bengal climb to fourth place with 11 points, firmly boosting their campaign, while Mohammedan Sporting continue to struggle at the bottom, still searching for their first points of the season

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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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Dong , who was a part of East Bengal in the last years Kolkata derby, wished them good luck on facebook before the start of the match.

Love for football and fish, that’s exactly what makes us Bengalis. Ahahah !

Not to forget , Paul the Octopus pretty much predicted everything right during the 2010 World Cup.

It’s a whole other thing that this particular Octupus died 5 years ago.

Hotel’s in Siliguri are benefiting the most due to the derby as all the thousands of East Bengal and Mohun Bagan supporters need somewhere to stay.

Willis Plaza’s Agent and former Mohun Bagan player Stephen on Facebook.

Darryl Duffy, is one of the 10 players from both teams who will experience the derby atmosphere for the first time.

When you are an Aizawl FC supporter.  Remember Aizawl is just 3 points behind East Bengal and  is currently placed in the 3rd position of the table.

Singer, MP and now a Poet as well. That’s how Babul Supriyo rolls !

This are the genuine supporters of the clubs, unlike the celebs we get to see during the ISL who are paid in huge amount for their presence within the stadium.

I hope, this is just a rumour !

Indeed.

The match is between East Bengal vs Mohun Bagan and Ten Sports put up a poster with Sunil in it who plays for Bengaluru FC.

What is wrong with Ten Sports ? All we I-League fans are asking from them is a little effort and they are failing to deliver that also.

This one is just for the Bengalis !

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