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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Air India hold Mohun Bagan at their home match at Kolhapur today. The home team took the lead earlier in the 44th minute while the visitors scored through their talismanic striker Jose Barreto in the 60th minute of the match. Jayanta Sen was awarded Man of the Match trophy for his excellence in the game. It was no Diamonstar in the defence and Chidi, Muritala were also not in the first eleven. Sagram Mandi got chance in the first eleven after his long suffered injury. Ishfaq was also in reserve bench while Snehasis got the chance. T.D. Subhas Bhowmick tried to look for his team’s reserve bench condition as well. Chidi and Muritala both were booked in the earlier matches so they were taken out from the first eleven because the next match is against Kingfisher East Bengal.

Air India stared the match with attacking mode while Bagan defence was so busy at this time. Bagan got the first corner in the 16^th minute. But no damage has been done by this set-piece. In the 26^th minute of the match Snehasis was shown yellow card due to foul on opponent player just outside of the penalty box. In the 27^th minute Eric of Air India missed the chance narrowly. His header just missed the target. Few minutes later Snehasis ran through the left flank and passed the ball Jayanta but the shot of Jayanta was well saved by Air India goalkeeper. After that attack of Air India became increased and as a result of that Air India got the chance to score a goal and they did it. In the 43^rd minute of the match a long throw from Dhanachanda went to Manjit and Manjit made no mistake to score the goal for his team (0-1). That is the most valuable goal so far for the team like Air India, who are now on the second last spot of the league table. In the first half Air India was the better side between the two sides.

In the second half Ashim and Barreto both tried hard but couldn’t find the goal. In the 53^rd minute Chidi came in the place of Gouranga Dutta. In the 57^th minute Dhanrajan’s cross from the right found the head of Chidi, but Chidi’s header went out narrowly after beating goalkeeper as well. After couple of minutes again Dhanrajan ran down the right flank and crossed the ball for Barreto and Barreto this time scored a brilliant goal (1-1) for the Mariners.

After that both side started to attack but Bagan had to be cautious because they are playing the away match and one point also not bad for them. In the 80^th minute Snehasis was replaced by in form Ishfaq Ahmed. In the last minute Air India goalkeeper saved a shot from Chidi, which could have been the decider but the score line remain same till the last minute.

Mohun Bagan Technical Director Subhas Bhowmick told to the press that few decisions of referee from Kerala had gone against them, which had become very costly for Mohun Bagan.

Mohun Bagan now got 18 points from 12 matches, while Air India got 9 points from the same number of matches. Mohun Bagan will play the next match against Kingfisher East Bengal on next Sunday, 6^th February, 2011.

Mohun Bagan : Shilton, Dhanarajan, Kingshuk, Sagram, Mohonraj, Gouranga(Chidi), Jayanta, Manish, Snehasish (Isfaq), Barreto, Ashim.

While the Bagan scorline reads 2-0 against AIFF XI, it could easily have been up by a few nothces had Muri converted half of what he wasted today! Chidi scored in the 10th and 80th minute for the Mariners while Muritala wasted a chance every ten minutes throughout the game!
We shall eagerly wait to see if Muritala can make it up in the next match (or the one after that)

It was a home match for the mariners after two consecutive away matches. T.D. Subhas Bhowmick has set their target to win the match only. There is no other way left for the marines against AIFF-XI. Barreto was in the rest as per instruction of Technical Director. So there is Muritala from the begining. But it is very pity to see that Muritala was missing a lot. It could have been more goals at least 4/5 goals if Muritala could convert half of his chances.

In the meantime Chidi Edeh is continuing to show brilliance in the field. He scored two goals each in the three matches successively he played including this match as well. Ishfaq Ahmed, the captain played brilliantly today also like previous matches.

In the 8th minute of the match Chidi got the brilliant through from Souvick but Chidi couldn’t score from this attack. But two minutes later Ishfaq sent a through for Chidi and Chidi’s brilliance made it 1-0 up for Bagan.

In the 30th minute Souvick was injured badly and Jayant has to come in his place. After that couple attacks initiated by AIFF-XI but due to lac of experience they couldn’t capitalize their chances. Shilton this time have shown some fumble as well.

At the starting of 2nd half Muritala got a deadly through from midfield area but he was unable to finish it as a goal. It was the easiest chance of the day so far. Except that  numbers of attack  were initiated by Mariners for Muritala but due to his poor form he couldn’t manage to score a single.

Picture: Bartaman

In the 48th minute and 70th minute Satish Kumar and Diamondstar were replaced by Gouranga Dutta and Karan Atwal.

In the 80th minute Chidi made the lead double by scoring another goal like previous one (2-0). This time he got through from Manish and did a solo run, lobbed the ball above the goalkeeper’s head inside the net. But Chidi was booked due to his shirtless victory celebration. Chidi was adjudged man of the match.

There were around 50 numbers of Muslim supporters of Mohun Bagan from Gujarat in the VIP stand. They were looking bit frustrated not to see Jose Barreto in the match but at the end of the match they were happy to see Chidi’s goals and victory of their favourite team. There were also two stars of the film EGARO in the VVIP stand. They were Hirak Das (played the role of Shibdas Bhaduri) and Uday Pratap Singh (Played the role of Bhuti Sukul). 

Mohun Bagan is now moved up to 5th spot of the table ahead of Dempo and Chirag. They will play next match against Air India at Kolhapur, Maharashtra on Saturday, 29th of January. Today in another match at Kolhapur Air India stunned the visiting team Dempo beating them by 4-0.

Mohun Bagan: Shilton, Nazimuddin, Mohonraj, Kingshuk, Diamondstar (Karan), Satish (Gouranga), Souvik (Jayanta), Manish, Isfaq, Chidi, Muritala