Mohun Bagan get revenge as tired East Bengal fall short in IFA Shield final

The Kolkata Derby had barely settled into its rhythm when Edmund Lalrindika found himself through on goal. It was the kind of chance he would have expected to bury a little over a month ago, when he scored a first-half hat-trick against Mohun Bagan in the Durand Cup final. This time, though, the finish was missing. Vishal Kaith stood tall, Edmund hesitated, and Mohun Bagan survived.

It felt like an early glimpse of what was to come.

Mohun Bagan beat East Bengal 1-0 in the IFA Shield final at the Salt Lake Stadium on Thursday, with Samir Zeljkovic scoring late in the first half to settle a game that never quite reached the levels expected from a Kolkata Derby final. East Bengal had more of the ball for much of the evening, but the possession rarely carried the sharpness or urgency required to break down a Mohun Bagan side that seemed content to let the game come to them.

There was a reason for that lack of energy, and it was not difficult to spot.

East Bengal had Jay Gupta and other players returning from international duty only two days after India had finished their three-match run against Panama, Brazil and Uruguay. Gupta had played against Brazil and also came on against Panama, while Edmund had played 17 minutes against Panama, 31 against Brazil and 45 against Uruguay. The latter had spent only two days between his final appearance for India and this derby.

The tiredness was visible in the details. Jay Gupta did not have the same spring in his movement and there were moments when East Bengal's players appeared half a second slower to the ball. Edmund's early miss was perhaps the clearest example, but the problem was not simply physical. The decision-making that had made him so devastating in the Durand Cup final seemed to be missing too.

In August, Edmund had needed almost no time to think. He had taken chances early, moved aggressively into the box and punished Mohun Bagan three times before half-time as East Bengal won the Durand Cup final 4-1. On Thursday, even getting into those positions looked harder, and when the opportunity came, the finish did not follow.

Habas had his own selection call to make before the final. David Lalhlansanga had just scored a hat-trick in East Bengal's 7-2 semi-final win over NorthEast United, while Edmund was coming off two demanding international appearances. There had been doubts over whether David would start, but Habas eventually went with the semi-final hero in the XI.

It was a very different East Bengal from the one that had torn NorthEast United apart three days earlier.

David had scored in the 12th, 46th and 56th minutes against NorthEast United, while Rohit Kumar, Chris Ikonomidis, Ake Loba and Lukasz Zwolinski also found the net. East Bengal had played with speed, aggression and an almost relentless appetite for attacking spaces.

Mohun Bagan had arrived at the final through a very different route. Their semi-final against Punjab FC had gone through 120 minutes without a goal before Vishal Kaith saved two penalties in the shootout and helped his side win 4-3. There was less spectacle in their route to the final, but perhaps that was exactly what they needed for the derby.

Panagiotis Dilmperis did not ask his players to turn the final into a contest of constant running. His side were comfortable allowing East Bengal to have possession, keeping their distances between the lines and waiting for moments when they could move forward without spending unnecessary energy.

East Bengal, meanwhile, kept trying to force the game open.

They could not.

The red-and-gold side had the better spells of possession, but Mohun Bagan were making the more sensible choices with the ball and without it. There was little panic when East Bengal circulated possession across the backline and midfield. The Mariners simply shifted across, closed the obvious routes and waited.

The longer it stayed 0-0, the more that approach began to make sense.

East Bengal were getting closer to the final third but were not doing enough once they got there. Crosses were not finding the right players, attacks slowed down around the box and the final pass was often either late or overhit. It was the same problem that had surfaced in front of goal with Edmund.

Then came the moment that changed the final.

Samir Zeljkovic put Mohun Bagan ahead in the closing stages of the first half, turning a game that had been controlled largely through possession by East Bengal into one that suited Dilmperis' side even more. Mohun Bagan went into the interval with a 1-0 lead.

And from there, the pattern became even clearer.

East Bengal had to come looking for the equaliser. Mohun Bagan did not.

That allowed the Mariners to play the game on their terms. They could sit deeper when necessary, break when space appeared and make East Bengal carry the pressure. There was no need for Dilmperis' players to chase every ball, particularly with the international window having already placed its own demands on several of the players involved in the wider squad.

It was intelligent game management.

East Bengal tried to change things after the break. The changes included their foreign attacking options, with Ake Loba and Lukasz Zwolinski among the players brought into the contest after their impressive appearances against NorthEast United. But neither could reproduce the impact of the semi-final, partly because Mohun Bagan were giving them very little room to attack.

That was the frustrating part for East Bengal. They were still seeing plenty of the ball. They were still pushing forward. They were still getting players into dangerous areas.

But the game was not moving.

Mohun Bagan were happy with that.

There was another noticeable difference from the three international matches that had preceded this derby. After watching Brazil and Uruguay operate at an entirely different speed and with international referees managing those games, the standard of domestic officiating on Thursday felt like another reminder of the gap.

The refereeing was uneven and the control of the game dipped at various points. There were challenges and decisions that felt less consistent than what the players had become accustomed to during the international window. It did not decide the final on its own, but it contributed to the feeling that this was a game operating at a lower technical and physical level than the nights against Brazil and Uruguay.

And perhaps that was understandable too.

This was a final being played almost immediately after an international window. India had played Panama on September 25, Brazil on October 3 and Uruguay on October 6. The last of those games ended only two days before the Shield final, and several players involved for the national team were then expected to return to club football almost immediately.

The physical drop was particularly obvious with East Bengal.

Jay Gupta had spent part of the international window playing against Brazil and Panama. Edmund had come off the bench against Panama and Brazil before playing 45 minutes against Uruguay. Those minutes might not look enormous in isolation, but the timing mattered. There had barely been time to recover, let alone prepare specifically for another high-pressure derby.

It was not an excuse for East Bengal. Mohun Bagan had their own workload concerns. But it helped explain why the final looked so different from the 7-2 semi-final that East Bengal had produced.

The second half became a battle between East Bengal's possession and Mohun Bagan's patience.

East Bengal kept coming. Mohun Bagan kept absorbing.

There were moments when the red-and-gold side looked capable of forcing an opening, particularly as the minutes began to run down. But every promising move seemed to lose something in its final stage. A touch was too heavy. A pass arrived too late. A cross was dealt with. A shot was blocked.

The game had become less about who could produce the better football and more about who could maintain their shape and concentration.

Mohun Bagan were better at that.

Even as East Bengal threw more bodies forward, Dilmperis' side did not abandon the approach that had brought them the lead. They continued to protect the central areas and made East Bengal work around them. The Mariners were not interested in winning the possession battle. They were interested in winning the final.

And they were doing enough.

The final minutes became increasingly frantic. East Bengal were pushing almost everything forward, and Mohun Bagan were defending deeper than they had earlier in the evening. The pressure finally produced back-to-back corners for East Bengal in stoppage time, with one last chance to turn all that possession into an equaliser.

It never came.

The final whistle brought relief from the Mohun Bagan players and frustration from East Bengal, who had spent much of the evening with the ball but very little of it in the places where it mattered.

For Mohun Bagan, the result carried more than just the Shield.

Two months earlier, East Bengal had inflicted one of the most painful defeats of the season on their rivals, beating them 4-1 in the Durand Cup final with Edmund scoring three times. The Mariners had also lost last year's IFA Shield final to East Bengal on penalties, making this another opportunity to restore some balance in a rivalry that has swung repeatedly between the two sides. (The Indian Express)

This time, Mohun Bagan did not need a comeback or a shootout.

They simply waited for their moment, took it through Zeljkovic and then refused to give East Bengal the game they wanted.

That was the difference.

East Bengal's possession could not hide how little energy they had left, and the same could be said of the final itself. After the Brazil and Uruguay friendlies had offered a glimpse of the speed, intensity and decision-making required at the highest level, the Kolkata Derby offered a rather different lesson.

Sometimes football is about having the energy to impose yourself. Sometimes, when the legs are heavy and the calendar leaves no room to breathe, it is about knowing how to conserve what you have.

Mohun Bagan did that better.

They leave the Salt Lake Stadium with the IFA Shield, revenge for the Durand Cup defeat and, for one night at least, the last word in Kolkata.