In Sunday's final match, Mohun Bagan had one change in the lineup. Armando Sadiku, who scored a stunning goal against FC Goa started the match replacing Jason Cummings.
THE FIRST HALF :
From the very beginning, most of the match was played in the midfield, and both of the teams struggled to create any clear-cut chance. After a few initial tensed minutes, Mohun Bagan gained control of the match. They tried to play passes among them and build up slowly while East Bengal sat back and depended on a counter-attacking approach.
The first real chance of the match came in the 37th minute for Mohun Bagan. Anirudh Thapa put a nice through ball for Asish Rai on the right-hand side and Asish did well to keep the ball in play. Then he put a pinpoint cross to Sahal Abdul Samad in the box who took a first-time shot and the ball went away from goal.
After a few minutes, another chance came in on the other side where Nandha Kumar sent a rebound ball way over the bar. Just before halftime, Dimitri Petratos got a ball on the edge of the box and attempted a swinging shot that went just over the bar. The first half ended in a draw.
THE SECOND HALF :
In the second half, Mohun Bagan tried to be more attacking, and Coach Juan Ferrando brought in Manvir Singh for Asish Rai. Just after coming in Manvir made an immediate impact from the right wing where he put an excellent pass for Hugo Boumous into the box but Boumous failed to keep the ball on target from a handshaking distance.
So far Mohun Bagan created few good chances and looked better than East Bengal in the entire match. But the match took a dramatic turnaround when Anirudh Thapa picked up a second yellow for a nasty high-boot challenge on Siverio. Mohun Bagan went down to 10 men and East Bengal took advantage fully and started putting pressure on Bagan's defense. Mohun Bagan sat back deep and defended with almost eight players in their box and kept their defense firm.
THE MAIDEN GOAL :
In the 71st minute, from a counter, Dimi Petratos received a ball in the opponent's half and he kept running toward the goal. None of the defenders went ahead to tackle the ball and Dimi got his time and space to take a shot. He took the shot so beautifully that the ball just bounced before the keeper and went into the bottom left corner. Right after breaking the deadlock, Dimi ran straight to the fans to celebrate.
REST OF THE MATCH :
In the rest of the match, East Bengal brought attack after attack and put crosses from both wings but failed to beat Vishal Kaith on every single occasion.
With this narrow victory over East Bengal, Mohun Bagan won their 17th Durand Cup title and surpassed East Bengal who won 16 Durand Cup titles.
Mohun Bagan treated the entire tournament as a preseason of the AFC Cup and the Indian Super League. Winning a trophy in preseason always gives extra confidence to do better in the upcoming competitions. So we hope Mohun Bagan will get better day by day and will do very well in the AFC Cup and the ISL.
MATCH RATINGS (by MBFT)
Vishal 8
Ashish 6
Anwar 8
Hector 8
Subhasish 7
Ashique 6
Anirudh 6
Sahal 6
Hugo 6
Dimitrios 8
Armando 6
Manvir 7
Hamill 6
Liston 6
Jason 6
Glan 6
