Come tomorrow, Sunday the 20th Feb and Mohun Bagan will be up against the team that defeated them in the first leg. A payback time altogether for the Mariners as they lock horn against HAL and that too at their own backyard.

The Aircraftsmen will be missing the service of the ever-dependable Xavier VijayKumar, who is serving one match suspension due double booking (against East Bengal and JCT).
 

Mohun Bagan practiced today at the match venue, Shree Kanteerava Stadium in the morning. The condition of the ground deterred Technical Director (TD) Subhas Bhowmik to go out for a full-blown practice session. Instead, he resorted to stretching, playing half-ground on both the sides, and finally set-piece movements.

Apart from missing crucial players, Bagan TD looked like a worried man, thanks to the football pitch! National-level football is being played here after many years, and the ground is uneven, with bald-patches in many places. Minutes after Mohanraj started practicing, he experienced a groin pain, and was out of practice for the entire session.

 

Bhowmik recollected the 70’s decade, where he played at the same ground, which was in much better condition.

It’s a crucial situation for Mohun Bagan – needs to garner full points, also ensuring the players are free from any kind of injury.

 

 

 

Subhajyoti Banerjee ,Bangalore.

Team Mohun Bagan will fly to Bangalore today after-noon.T.D. Shubhas Bhowmick called morning practice session and after that the team will be off to Bangalore to play the match against HAL. Jose Barreto is ruled out due to injury from this match. Apart from Barreto Manish and Souvick are also not in the team due to injury. In the first leg Bagan faced defeat against the Bangalore outfit. But that was the era of Stanley Rozario and this is the era of T.D. Subhas Bhowmick. So we must hope for a better result for Bagan.

The team selected for the match against HAL at Bangalore is mentioned below.
Sangram Mukherjee, Shilton Paul, Surkumar Singh, Deepak Kumar Mandal, Anwar Ali, N. Mohanraj, Nagimuddin Mollick, Kingshuk Debnath, Dhanarajan R., Snehasish Chakraborty, Jayanta Sen, Rakesh Masih, Ishfaq Ahmed (captain),Satish Kumar, Gouranga Dutta, Dipendu Dowary, Muritala Ali, Chidi Edeh.
Technical Director: Subhas Bhowmick
Coach : Sujit Chakraborty
Manager: Dr. Pratim Roy
Gobindaprasad Deb, Atindranath Sen.

 

 

Last time referee Pratap Singh and Saji Kurian ensure that a penalty is given against Bagan when the ball hit Surkumar. This was enough to take two points from Bagan. Today referee Costa went one step ahead and canceled a clean goal of Chidi Edeh to ensure Bagan loses two more points. This show, that was seen in Fed Cup final continues to entertain Indian Football referees fraternity.

It all started when Jose Barreto was pulled down near the Pune FC box – and referee gave foul against Barreto. This happened two more time when Barreto was hit from behind and fouls were awarded against him. At one time one thought a foul in PuneFC box was enough for awarding penalty against Bagan. Bagan was lucky tht referee Costa did not opt for the same.

Bagan suffered a setback mush before the game with no Ashim, Muritala, Manish, Souvik, Mohanraj in the list for various reasons. With practically no central midfielder – Bagan failed to control the central midfield.

But a rock solid defense made sure all Pune attacks were foiled. However Pune did test Bagan defense and once the ball hit the cross bar even.

Deepak was rightly adjudged as the Man of the Match.

Referee Pratap Singh awarded KEB a penalty in the 8th minute when the ball hit Surkumar’s hand. In many cases for last few seasons Mohun Bagan was deprived of penalties (if you recall the Fed Cup final – a similar handball incident happened) . And of course Saji Kurian was the Asst. Referee

That was the beginning. Soon al knew that they match officials were even worse than those in Fed Cup final this year – or those from CRA. One wonders hw these blokes get a chance to officiate a high tension match like the one today.

With one hundred thousand spectators around  ( 60-40 for Mohun Bagan) these matches should be conducted by best referees. Since there is no quality referee avaialble in India – AIFF  should think of bringing a referee from AFC.

Sanju Pradhan scored when referee awarded a penalty for KEB as the ball hit Surkumar’s hand. Barreto briliance made it 1-1- in the 30th minute when he headed the ball into the net from 10 yards!

The rest ? free style wrestling by two teams – mostly by Mehtab, Sanju, Nauba, Barreto, Ishfaq – and Gurwinder and Ashim rightly shown marching orders.

What about Nabi and coach Morgan – had they been in EPL they would gave got bans for at least 2 matches and a huge penalty – lucky Nabi and Morgan – they were in India.

Mohun Bagan : Shilton, Surkumar, Anwar, Deepak, Mohonraj, Isfaq (Snehasis) ,Rakesh, Manish (Jayanta), Muritala (Ashim), Barreto, Chidi. 
East Bengal : Sandip, Naoba, Okpara, Gurwinder, Soumik (Nabi), Sanju, Penn, Mehtab, Sushant (Ravindar), Sushil (Nirmal), Tolgey.

McDowell Mohun Bagan will take on their arch rival Kingfisher East Bengal in the next round of iLeague campaign. Apart from traditional rivalry, return of key players from India camp in both the sides, war of words and strategies between two veteran mangers and huge media attention have created public interest in such an extent that IFA, after a long time, is expecting over hundred thousand spectators on 6th Feb to watch the first Kolkata derby of 2011. The match will be held at Yuba Bharati Krirangan on Sunday 6th February. Official time of kick off is 3.30 PM IST. Bagan shared point with Air India in their last iLeague away match while East Bengal too shared honor with Churchill Brothers at Kolkata. It’s time for the fully loaded big guns of the Mariners to show their dominance not only to earn full 3 points but also to regain their prestige and pride.

In this season (2010-11) three matches have been played between these two teams and in each outing Bagan had to face defeat. In the final of the Federation Cup at Cuttack after putting two genuine goals into the net of East Bengal, Bagan had to face defeat due to the match official’s controversial decision of cancelling both the goals. In that occasion East Bengal won by 1-0.

Date	Team	Score	Team
06-01-1998	Mohun Bagan	2-1	East Bengal
04-03-1998	Mohun Bagan	0-0	East Bengal
02-01-1999	Mohun Bagan	1-1	East Bengal
10-03-1999	Mohun Bagan	0-2	East Bengal
03-01-2000	Mohun Bagan	1-0	East Bengal
22-03-2000	Mohun Bagan	1-3	East Bengal
17-02-2001	Mohun Bagan	0-1	East Bengal
10-04-2001	Mohun Bagan	0-0	East Bengal
16-12-2001	Mohun Bagan	1-0	East Bengal
11-03-2002	Mohun Bagan	1-0	East Bengal
08-12-2002	Mohun Bagan	0-2	East Bengal
25-02-2003	Mohun Bagan	1-2	East Bengal
22-01-2004	Mohun Bagan	1-2	East Bengal
25-04-2004	Mohun Bagan	1-2	East Bengal
12-01-2005	Mohun Bagan	0-0	East Bengal
24-04-2005	Mohun Bagan	0-1	East Bengal
22-01-2006	Mohun Bagan	0-0	East Bengal
08-04-2006	Mohun Bagan	1-3	East Bengal
27-02-2007	Mohun Bagan	0-1	East Bengal
15-04-2007	Mohun Bagan	2-1	East Bengal
30-12-2007	Mohun Bagan	1-0	East Bengal
21-01-2008	Mohun Bagan	2-0	East Bengal
25-10-2008	Mohun Bagan	1-1	East Bengal
22-02-2009	Mohun Bagan	0-3	East Bengal
25-10-2009	Mohun Bagan	5-3	East Bengal
16-05-2010	Mohun Bagan	2-1	East Bengal

In the final of MSC Platinum Jubilee Cup, the match went into the tie-breaker and KEB came out again as the better side in that match as well. In the last encounter in Sahara Kolkata Premier League Bagan was defeated by 2-0 margin and it helped East Bengal to regain the Kolkata League after long three years.

Head to Head in i-league

Total Matches played 26

Mohun Bagan won 9 times.

East Bengal won 11 times.

Draw 6 times.

Mohun Bagan scored 24 goals.

East Bengal scored 30 goals.

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