Do Dong-hyun brace, Jeje's missed penalty enough to seal Derby triumph for East Bengal

JUST AS THE Mohun Bagan team bus was rolling into the main gate of the Kanchenjunga Stadium, a crowd of enthusiastic fans gathered around it. The first chant that came out of their assembled chorus was that of 'Sony, Sony, Sony.' The enthusiasm in their voice took a hit when one by one the players and staff came out and the Haitian winger was nowhere to be seen.

Inside the arena, the rather paltry capacity of which had all but filled up about an hour before kick-off, it was obvious who had the majority of the crowd behind them. Apart from the specially demarkated section for Mohun Bagan fans who travelled from Kolkata, the colours red and yellow dominated the general seating. 

Usually, when it comes to the Kolkata Derby, the Salt Lake Stadium offers equal harbour to the opposing factions, and the concept of "home" and "away" remains mostly on paper. But in this instance, the atmosphere resembled that of an East Bengal home match (which it was) rather than a Kolkata Derby.

Although when the teams walked out onto the field (which had a ghost of a cricket pitch visible in the middle), the familiar welcoming roar immediately recalled the Derby tune to the contest. The same crowd, however, provided a pin-drop silence to honour the victims of the Kolkata Flyover Tragedy. 

But though Sony's absence meant Mohun Bagan were starting with a slight mental disadvantage (Sankarlal played Katsumi on the left flank and Manish Bhargav on the right), they began with anything but a deficit in the attacking department. 

Early on Cornell Glen got on the back of a long ball with Arnabl Mondal trying to latch on. The striker got out of that fending Arnab off, but the tussle was enough to disturb his aim and he sent it over the crossbar. Then a forward charge from Katsumi saw him get fouled just outside the box. He took the free-kick and sent it a bit too hight. 2 minutes later they got another free kick, Katsumi took it again, and Luis Barreto took care of it. Jeje got in on the act, advancing with a nice exchange of passes with Glen, but the latter messed up the finish again.

The Red and Golds pushed back, earning a corner, halting the inbound traffic into their defence for a bit. The midfielders stuck in, allowing Ranti Martins to take their first shot on target; the ball got partially blocked by a defender and limped its way to Debjit Majumder.

Tempers were flaring as the minutes wore on. Bernard Mendy attracted an agressive foul from Pronay Halder that almost got him carded. Meanwhile a constant foul-fuelled feud was building up between Cornell Glen and Bello Rasaq. But the bitterness really came to a head when Luciano Sabrosa made the mistake that changed the complexion of the game.

As Ranti Martins was waiting for an aerial ball Luciano took him on and in the process pushed him, about a foot inside the box. The referee pointed to the penalty spot. Luciano lost his head and yelled at the ref. Do Dong-hyun, who had earlier come on as a substitute for U-22 Abinash Ruidas, took the spot kick, sent keeper Debjit the wrong way, and got the lead for East Bengal. 

Bagan's coach in charge, Sankarlal Chakraborty, made things worse for his team by mouthing off with the fourth official. He got red carded and Mohun Bagan were left without a coach in the bench. It was perhaps for the very first time that a team played without a coach in the history of Kolkata Derby. Physio Djair Miranda Garcia took over at the bench, but the damage was done. Mohun Bagan went into the half-time break a goal down, without a guide, and back in the mental gloom that had settled on them with the exclusion of Sony Norde.

The second half began continued mostly in the same vein as the first. Cornell Glen was making a few good runs but the East Bengal defenders were repeatedly trumping him with the offside trap. Katsumi Yusa threatened with his pacy moves but wasn't following up with the finishing. Jeje Lalpekhlua got a good few chances but sent them flying woefully off the target. In the East Bengal defence, Robert Lalthlamuana was having a particular good time, while Bello Rasaq had become the shadow that Glen could not shake off. The former Bagan player even pulled off a goalline save, preserving East Bengal's lead. Ranti Martins was right up there, got a couple of shots on target, but Debjit managed to parry them away.

But it was Do Dong-hyun again who delivered the decisive blow for East Bengal. With Sanju Pradhan delivering the ball into the box, Dong-hyun received it on a half turn and sent it into the net with a well-placed right footer. 73 minutes into the match, East Bengal were 2-0 ahead and it seemed that East Bengal were well on their way to an undisputed vicory.

But the end was going to be a lot messier than that. After Glen got a couple of his shots saved, Katsumi Yusa got a deadly header on target from the outer edges of the penalty box. The ball went in and Mohun Bagan were back in the hunt, trailing 2-1 with 8 minutes to spare. 7 more were added to it as injury time.

And towards the end of extra time, Sehnaj Singh brought down Jeje Lalpekhlua, completely without necessity, on the edge of the box. Suddenly, Mohun Bagan had a penalty, and the easiest means to salvage a point from this game they could have asked for. Jeje himself took the penalty kick after prolonged drama with the players' positioning on the line of the box. And he bogged down under pressure. 

The shot was ill-timed, slow-paced, and on the same side that Luis Barreto dived. The keeper fell to the ground then for a split second waited with his palms stretched as the ball rolled into his grip. 

Mohun Bagan had blown it. They had blown nearly a dozen chances to score, blown the Derby and perhaps blown their biggest chance to stay ahead in the I-League title race. The eventual final whistle brought in the confirmation that the defending champions (on 25 points from 13 matches after back to back losses) were now the league leaders only by name; both Bengaluru FC and East Bengal could now overtake them with a couple of good results of their own. 

The torches came on. The red flares went up. East Bengal celebrated a prestigious Derby triumph, a solid revival of their title bid and the memory of a messy night that saw almost all of their arch rivals' worst nightmares incarnate on the Siliguri pitch.