Pressure cooker climax for Kolkata Derby as Bagan salvage draw after East Bengal lead

A FIESTY DERBY saw it all as both East Bengal and Mohun Bagan cancelled each other out with a goal apiece; with Ranti Martins's lead being cancelled out by a late Cornell Glen header.

Biswajit Bhattacharya played his cards by bringing in Saumik Dey and Rahul Bheke into the squad, while Sony Norde came into the starting line-up at te expense of Balwant Singh. It was a regulatory move; Azharuddin Mallick was the U-22 man up front who was swapped for Balwant Singh barely 12 minutes into the game.

The momentum, from the beginning, was with the Red and Golds. Rahul Bheke made a good run and fed Bikash Jairu whose centre was cleared by Kingshuk Debnath for a corner. Then Bikash Jairu fooled his national team colleague Pritam Kotal and almost found Ranti Martins but Souvik Chakraborty came in the way.

Mohun Bagan tried to reply with a lobbed ball from Katsumi towards Glen who got caught offside. Then Pronay Halder played a sly little pass that allowed Sony Norde to run with it. The Haitian winger tried to find Cornell Glen but Arnab Mondal made a great interruption to neutralize a serious threat.

A corner allowed Arnab to make some impact on the opposite end of the pitch too as he managed to get the header but it went straight to Debjit. Bikash Jairu sprang into action, sending in a high cross that was headed straight for Do Dong-hyun but Dhanachandra stopped it. The ball got to Sony Norde who built up a counter-attack. He fed Balwant who took a short from quite a distance that had almost no hope of getting in. Rehenesh collected the ball quite easily. Bagan made yet another onslaught with Norde fooling a defender and sending the ball towards Katsumi who could not get there on time.

Souvik Chakraborty almost made a mess of things in the back with a back header that was painstakingly cleared by Kingshuk. Then around the middle of the pitch Saumik and Katsumi went down entangled while jostling for a ball. A spat ensued that was thankfully broken up.

The game entered a phase of deadlock where neither team could create significant chances. Saumik Dey picked up a yellow for one of his fouls, and Mohun Bagan suffered due to two of their chief attackers, Sony Norde and Katsumi Yusa, constantly looking out of touch.

But towards the end of the half a spark came from Sony as he ran up the left flank and sent in a well-placed cross for Glen whose finishing header was weak and Rehenesh collected it easily. A minute later Abinash Ruidas took a pass from Ranti and made a run, feeding Do Dong-hyun far wide. He sent the ball in and it hopped dangerously past the goalmouth but no one got to it. The first half ended goalless.

But when the game resumed the tempo was higher. Katsumi got a ball through to Cornell Glen who got past Bello and took a shot but Rehenesh TP made a solid diving save. East Bengal replied immediately as Do Dong-hyun charged towards their goal and sent in a diagonal shot that Debkity Majumder managed to send out.

But the pressure was slowly building on the Mohun Bagan defende and the fuse valve blew off just after the hour mark. Bikash Jairu lobbed the ball and Ranti Martins found himself with enoughh space to turn and send in a powerful shot that left Debjit rooted to his spot. Half of the 70,000-strong crowd exploded in joy, the fireworks went up... East Bengal were leading one nil.

For the next few minutes it was all attack from the Red and Golds as the Mariners scrambled all around to defend. Do Dong-hyun invaded the Bagan box but a tackle from Kingshuk diffused that. Then a free kick, taken by Ranti Martins, almost went in but Debjit managed to slap it away.

But a Saumik Dey foul on Katsumi saw Sony Norde step up. He delivered it right into the pile of bodies inside the East Bengal box and Cornell Glen managed to get a powerful, precise headerv on it. Rehenesh got a hand to it but the sheer force of the ball sent it straight in. It was 1-1 with some 3 minutes to spare.

It was the Mariners who were on the offensive now. A couple of corners saw East Bengal get all bodies behind the ball. Towards the very end of the game Jeje Lalpekhlua, who had come on to replace a misfiring Souvik Chakraborty, sent in a cross from the right that Glen got another of his deadly headers on. But Rehenesh reacted in a split second, getting his hand to it and denying what was sure to be a winning goal.

The match ended there, tied 1-1, with both sets of fans celebrating the result with torches and fireworks. East Bengal proved that as a team they were not much behind the likes of Mohun Bagan and Bengaluru; in fact they dominated most of the game. Bagan fans, meanwhile, were happy to salvage a point from a game that looked lost at one point, and that they had left the field with an honourable result despite their midfield misfiring massively. Mohun Bagan remain at the top of the table with 7 points from 3 matches; for now, because Bengaluru FC are to play their third match tomorrow.