Pictures by Bibhash Lodh, BS News Agency.
Namita Deb, BS News Agency: East Bengal reached the Durand Cup final on Wednesday, defeating Sporting Club Delhi in a tiebreaker at Yuva Bharati, relying on the hands of goalkeeper Prabhsukhon Gill. And the next day, Thursday, in the second semi-final at Shillong, Mohun Bagan Super Giant reached the Durand final by defeating last-time champion NorthEast United 4-3 in a tiebreaker. In the quarter-finals, the Bagan team also won a long tiebreaker against Jamshedpur FC, relying on Vishal's hands. North East's dream of reaching the Durand final three times in a row was shattered.
East Bengal goalkeeper Prabhusukhan Durand saved Delhi footballer Penner's shot in the tiebreaker in the first semi-final. That was the victory. And in the second semi-final, the trusted guard of the garden, Vishal, coolly stopped the fourth and fifth shots taken by North East United's Robin Yadav and Gogoi, and took the team to the final. North East's Ninkovic, Aladin Azare and Etienne scored from penalties, but Robin and Gogoi's shots were saved by Vishal. For the green maroons, Rahul Beck, Subhasish Basu, Liston Colasso and Jamie McLaren did not make a single mistake in scoring from penalties. Despite playing well throughout the match, North East's goalkeeper Gurmeet could not stop the shots of these four. This means that East Bengal FC and Mohun Bagan Super Giants will face off again in the Kolkata derby in the Durand Final on Sunday.
What better could the Durand Cup organizers ask for? Mohun Bagan SG and East Bengal FC will face off again in the Durand Final after 2023. This year's tournament started with the Kolkata derby at Yuva Bharati. Which Mohun Bagan won. The two teams will face off again in the final. East Bengal have a chance to win the final derby and become champions and take revenge. In 2023, the Bagan Brigade lost the group stage derby match. However, they won the title by defeating East Bengal in the final. Under the coaching of then coach Juan Ferrando. This time, Mohun Bagan SG reached the Durand Final under the coaching of new coach Panagiotis Dimperis. However, it goes without saying that the green and maroons have a tough fight ahead of them in the final. Because after losing in the first derby of Durand, the red and yellow coach Antonio Lopez Habas has prepared his team a lot. So there is no doubt that an enjoyable Durand final awaits Kolkata football fans on Sunday.
Mohun Bagan coach and footballers must be given extra credit for reaching the final despite playing in the adverse weather and field of Shillong. They also deserve praise. The team has injury problems. Dejan Dragic could not go to Shillong with the team due to an injury. After playing the quarterfinal match, the Bagan footballers had to go to play the semifinal match in the unfamiliar environment of Shillong with almost no rest and preparation. The altitude of Shillong was also a cause of discomfort near Bagan. Before the match, the field at the Nehru Stadium in Shillong was waterlogged due to heavy rain. The water was so much accumulated under the grass that the ball was not rolling well. It became difficult for both teams to play two consecutive passes. However, the Bagan and North East footballers continued to attack by exchanging passes between themselves for the entire 90 minutes. Of which, the share of Bagan's attacks was more. Throughout the match, Liston, Sahal, and free kicks, repeatedly made North East goalkeeper Gurmeet uncomfortable with long-range shots. However, Gurmeet failed to block those attempts in the stipulated 90 minutes in the tiebreaker.
Mohun Bagan coach Panos initially kept only one foreigner, Zelkovic, in the first eleven and focused on attacking, relying more on the home footballers. Apuya returned to the team after recovering from his injury. As planned, coach Panos marked North East's goal machines Aladin Azare and Jitin MS. In that, North East coach Pedro Benal's trump card Aladin could not do anything special except make some random attempts. At the end of the regular time, Bagan coach Panos made several changes to the team. The green Maroon coach brought in Jamie McLaren, Miguel Ferreira, Aniruddha Thapa and Chante to increase the attack. However, no goal was scored in the regular time. The match went to a tiebreaker. And in that phase, the hero Mohun Bagan goalkeeper Vishal Keith made two brilliant saves. Last season, goalkeeper Vishal had brought the green Maroons victory in the IFA Shield final against East Bengal by making such a save in the tiebreaker.
Mohun Bagan: Vishal, Abhishek, Becky, Alberto, Subhasish, Kian (McLaren), Apuya, Zelkovic (Miguel), Liston, Sahal (Thapa) and Manbir (Chante).