Mohun Bagan 1(Zelkovic) East Bengal 0
Bibhash Lodh, BS News Agency: After a long time, East Bengal came out to play the derby as the favorite. It was said that they were ahead on paper. But in the Shield final, Mohun Bagan turned all the odds against East Bengal on Thursday and defeated them 1-0 at Yuva Bharati with a goal by Sameer Zelkovic, bringing home the Shield for the 22nd time. Mohun Bagan SG won the Shield again after last year. What could be a better Shardiya gift for the Sabuj Maroon fans than this? The Sabuj Maroon also won the Kolkata Football League. When Mohun Bagan members and fans will be overwhelmed with the joy of winning the Shield during the festive days of Durga Puja, Bagan coach Panos is very relieved. Because there was such a rumor that if Bagan lost the Shield final, his coaching future would be in question.
Last year, Mohun Bagan Super Giant won the IFA Shield final by defeating East Bengal in a tiebreaker. At that time, Mohun Bagan coach Jose Molina was in charge. And Oscar Brujon was in the East Bengal coach's chair. This time, not only the coach's position was changed in the new season, but many footballers were changed in both teams. However, before facing each other in the Shield final derby on Thursday, Mohun Bagan coach Panos and East Bengal coach Habas got many matches. To organize the team. It is worth saying that before facing each other in the Shield final, the two leaders faced each other in derbies twice more. In the Durand Cup group league match and in the final. If you take the Kolkata League derby three times. In terms of success in the derby this season, East Bengal had a heavy lead until the Shield final.
Mohun Bagan won the Durand Group League derby. But in the Kolkata League derby, Mohun Bagan Super Giant could not defeat East Bengal, who played with reserve team footballers despite playing senior footballers. The match ended in a 1-1 draw. East Bengal defeated Mohun Bagan 4-1 in the Durand Final derby and won the trophy. So from that point of view, the favorite tag in the Shield final was on East Bengal. Because in the Shield semi-final, where East Bengal won a huge 7-2 goal against North East, Mohun Bagan SG defeated Punjab FC in the tiebreaker, relying on the hands of goalkeeper Vishal. Compared to East Bengal, Mohun Bagan's organized game was not noticeable.
But Mohun Bagan was seen in a different face in the Shield final. The head of the green maroon, Sir Panos, had in mind the goal of conceding 4 goals in the Durand final. So he walked first to consolidate his team's defense. He felt that left back Subhasish was not in form at all. So he put Subhasish in his position and kept Abhishek, who played in the Indian team, and played Mehtab at right back. He consolidated the defense by playing Rahul Beck with Alberto at stopper. Panos did not use Apuya, Aniruddha Thapa, and Manbir, who played for the national team, from the beginning. Perhaps because they were tired from playing high-intensity matches against Panama, Brazil, and Uruguay. He kept only Sahal in the first eleven. He trusted the rest of the footballers who played in the previous Shield match. On the other hand, East Bengal coach Habas also did not keep anyone in the first eleven except Edmund and Joy Gupta, who played for the national team, probably keeping in mind the fatigue of playing in the Indian jersey. It seemed that the red and yellow footballers did not have the excitement of the semi-final today. At no time was there a sense of organization in their game. Rather, a sense of understanding and relaxation was detected. However, the most shaky feeling was noticed in the absence of Anwar in the East Bengal defense. It is unacceptable that such a situation will arise in the East Bengal defense if a footballer does not play.
Still, East Bengal did not start badly. In the 6th minute, they wasted a sure chance to go ahead by scoring a goal. Edmund had received a ball from Joy Gupta in the gap. In front of the helpless goalkeeper Vishal. Edmund took a hasty shot, but the ball hit the goalkeeper Vishal and went out in front of the goal, and Bagan survived.
However, the Mohun Bagan fans would not have forgiven him for the goal that Mehtab missed in the 23rd minute. The ball, taken from the left by Abhishek Singh, went over the East Bengal defenders inside the box and hit Mehtab's head. There was no one around to stop Mehtab. The red and yellow goalkeeper Phurba Lachenpa was counting the minutes under the goal. To everyone's surprise, Mehtab sent the ball over the crosspiece with his head like a boy who was running away from a bound, and Mehtab missed the opportunity to score.
In the 36th minute, after receiving the ball from Rashid's missed pass, Changte got the ball outside the box and exchanged passes between them. When he took a strong knee-level shot, East Bengal goalkeeper Lachenpa promptly cleared it with his fist in exchange for a corner. In the next minute, goalkeeper Lachenpa perfectly saved Sahal's powerful shot from a corner taken by Chant.
From then on, Mohun Bagan's pressure continued to increase. East Bengal suddenly became disorganized in the midfield and defense. The Bagan footballers were repeatedly attacking the goal. The mistake of the East Bengal defensive footballers was eye-catching. Finally, East Bengal paid the price for that mistake and conceded a goal in the last moment of the first half. Edmund tried to pass the ball to Rashid in the East Bengal midfield. Bagan's Sameer Zelkovic caught the ball and passed it to Lee Erwin who was next to him. After winning the battle for possession with Zibulic, he pushed Sahal forward. The ball cleverly entered the box from behind and lifted Zelkovic, who had taken up space, who tapped the ball past goalkeeper Lachenpa and sent it into the goal. His first goal in the derby. In the 55th minute, East Bengal defender Sandeep Mandi headed the ball into the empty net and hit the head of Bagan's man of the match Dradic hard. Dradic fell down after being injured. Sandeep also suffered a concussion. Although Dradic was on the field after initial treatment, Sandeep was forced to leave due to injury. Vishnu came on the field in his place, and Loba replaced Bipin.
In the 68th minute, Chhang's shot evaded goalkeeper Lachenpa and went wide of the post. Mohun Bagan continued to dominate the rest of the match. East Bengal tried to score, but it was unsuccessful because Bagan's defense was solid. Alberto, Becked's unyielding attitude must be praised. Durand added to the pain of losing in the final by winning the Shield.
Mohun Bagan: Vishal, Mehtab, Alberto, Becked, Abhishek, Chante (Thapa), Tangri, Zelkovic, Dragic (Suhel), Sahal (Manveer), Erwin (Liston).
East Bengal: Lachenpa, Hardik, Zibulic, Lalchungnunga, Sandeep (Vishnu), Bipin (Loba), Ramirez, Jackson, Rashid, Joy (Lucas), Edmund (David).