IFA Shied runners Mohun Bagan will face the Mahindra United at Ambedkar Stadium on Sunday evening in the 114th Durand Cup Semifinal. Mohun Bagan will be looking to build on their unconvincing victory against ONGC and JCT successively in group matches at Ambedkar Stadium on Sunday, and will be hoping that the side begins to click in the traditional Mohun Bagan fashion to chalk up their name in the Final to play against Churchill Brothers. Churchill defeated Dempo by 2-1 in the first semi final on Saturday evening.

Mahindra United on the other hand will be looking to take revenge of the IFA Shield where they drew with the mariners and get out of IFA Shield after displayed some good football in second half. Here in Durand Cup they have beaten another Kolkata outfit Kingfisher East Bengal and earlier drawn with new club in Indian Football Lyajon FC, Shillong in the group matches.

The talismanic striker of  Bagan Jose Ramirez Barreto was injured during the last group match against JCT and replced by Branco after his double strike on the early minutes of the match. It is the main concern for the Coach Kareem Bencherifa to make the Brazilian 100 % fit as early as possible. Another foreigner Chiddi has also shown his form by scoring goals in important moment. Mohun Bagan defence has shown great solidarity under veteran Dipak Mondal, who himself declared that he is in the form of his life. Late recruit right back Surkumar Singh has shown some goal scoring ability as well. However, it has been seen absence of Marcos make the mariners’ mid-field little weaker, whereas the others are not in their best of form. But against the team like Mahindra they have to perform at their best to help their team to reach to the final. Goalkeeper Sangram Mukherjee also is in the good form and as the captain of the team, he is leading from the front.

So there will be a interesting game of football between the two giants of Kolkata and Mumbai on 20th September, Sunday evening at Ambedkar Stadium, New Delhi. Match will be on and from 5.30pm (IST). The live update will be available on mohunbaganclub.com

Probable Line-Up for Mohun Bagan AC:

Sangram, Mohanraj, Masih, Deepak, Surkumar, Snehasish, Kulothungan, Mickey, James, Chiddi, Barreto  

 

 

 

Mohun Bagan defeated JCT 2 – 0 today at Ambedkar Stadium, New Delhi in a group-B match and marched into the Semifinal of the 114th Durand Cup, where they will meet Mahindra United on Sunday 20th September.

It was enough a draw for Bagan to book the semi final berth, but the double strike of the talismanic Jose Ramirez Barreto brought sweet victory against JCT and a semifinal berth against Mahindra United. On the 3rd and 13th minute of the match Barreto scored for Bagan, first one from a James center by a header like bullet. James a missed a scoring opportunity on 38th minute by wasting a penalty. on 21st minute of the match Barreto was replaced by Branco due to injury, but the injury seems to be minor one.

It is not easy for any team to play against JCT at Ambedkar, but Bagan players seem to be cool customer as their defence played well, specially in 2nd half, when the Punjab team went all out to score. Goal Keeper Sangram Mukherjee also made some good saves to help his team reach the semi final without any hiccups. The overall game of the Mariners exuded quality and professionalism that is rarely visible in Indian football.

Booking Status:Surkumar Singh (19′), Santha Kumar (90’+2′ ) (Mohun Bagan); Baljit Singh Sahni (30′, JCT)

 

Teams:

Mohun Bagan AC
1-Sangram Mukherjee [C], 13-Irungbam Surkumar Singh, 4-Deepak Kumar Mondal, 20-Rakesh Masih, 27-Nallappan Mohanraj, 16-James Lukram Singh, 26-Micky Fernandes, 17-Kalia Perumal Kulothungan (69′ 8-Subho Kumar), 25-Snehashis Chakraborty (73′ 7-Santha Kumar), 10-Jose Marcio Ramirez Barreto (21′ 12-Branco Vincent Cardozo), 9-Chidi Edeh

Unused Substitutes
31-Shilton Pal, 19-Mashangva Genius Zenith, 32-Subhajit Majumdar 34-Sangram Mandi

JCT
1-Karanjit Singh [C], 2-Jaspal Singh, 24-Gurwinder Singh, 30-Sarbjeet Singh, 12-Daljit Singh; 7-Jagpreet Singh (78′ 13-Baldeep Singh Sr), 10-Penn Ikechukwu Orji, 27-Baldeep Singh Jr, 25-Sakatar Singh (74′ 14-Lalchhuanmawia), 9-Balwant Singh, 6-Baljit Singh Sahni (71′ 21-Balraj Singh)

Unused Substitutes
31-Prasanta Dora, 5-Narinder Singh, 19-Randeep Singh, 22-Pawan Kumar

Referee: P.K. Bose (Madhya Pradesh)

Bagan won by 5-1 against ONGC in their opening match in Durand Cup. It is one of Chief Coach Karim Bencharifa’s favourite mantras: if you lose, it’s how you react that counts. What happened at IFA Shield final last week must have made Kareem and his boys’ teeth hurt, but it is difficult to imagine how Mohun Bagan’s response could have been more satisfying. Chiddi Edeh, who missed the IFA Shield final, soothed his nerves with two confidence-building goals. Ditto Surkumar Singh. Barreto’s goal made this Bagan’s biggest win of the season.

 The most gratifying part for Kareem, however, was that the two players who were missed in the Shield final scored – though, Barreto missed a penalty.Chiddi had been desperately looking for the goals right from the word GO. Surkumar, too, should feel a lot better after hooking in two goals that had Bagan’s supporters loudly singing his name rather than arguing among themselves about whether he is a right back or a forward!  When Barreto played with Chiddi to fire in Bagan’s third goal it was only the first time Chiddi had set Barreto up to score since they became team-mates. Barreto, in turn, has created only one for Chiddi. How this partnership is going to develop over the next few months, Kareem is acutely aware, will be pivotal to Bagan’s aspirations of keeping the Federation Cup and winning the i-League trophy. Mohun Bagan, now need just a draw against JCT in their next match on Friday to make it to the semi-final.

Surkumar Singh (9’  and 90+2) and Nigerian Chidi Edeh (16th and 77th) scored two goal each while Jose Barretto (43rd) scored once for Mohun Bagan, Babatunde socred the solitory goal for ONGC in the 82nd minuteof the match.




Surkumar Singh played at times was becoming a  libero in the first half of the match, instead of his usual right back position. That was the successful experiement of Coach Bencherifa.























The member of the National squad played an outstanding game in the first half to take the full control of the match, though in second half he has played in his normal right back position. 
































Surkumar scored the first goal for Mohun Bagan. Seven minutes later, ONGC made a mistake for holding the ball inside their box for too long as Chiddi made no mistake to score his first of the match and 2nd for his team. On 43rd minutes before the lemon break, in his first mach Barretto scored by a right footer of  a deflection from ONGC defender CS Saleel.
Chidi scored his double as he turned in a low right footer past the ONGC goalkeeper in the 77th minute, Surkumar completed the scorline 5-1 by firing in a 35-yard long ranger in the injury time.

Teams:
Mohun Bagan AC
1-Sangram Mukherjee, 13-Irungbam Surkumar Singh, 4-Deepak Kumar Mondal [C], 20-Rakesh Masih, 27-Nallappan Mohanraj, 16-James Lukram Singh (72′ 32-Subhajit Majumdar), 26-Micky Fernandes, 17-Kalia Perumal Kulothungan (84′ 8-Subho Kumar), 25-Snehashis Chakraborty (65′ 7-Santha Kumar), 10-Jose Marcio Ramirez Barreto, 9-Chidi Edeh

Unused Substitutes
31-Shilton Pal, 19-Mashangva Genius Zenith, 12-Branco Vincent Cardozo, 34-Sangram Mandi

ONGC, Mumbai
30-Bilifang Narzary [C], 22-K.V. Lalu, 6-Udofia Chiukwama, 3-Kamal Thapa, 16-Shahbaz Shaleel, 18-L. Lalmuanpuia (60′ 17-Phool Chand Hembram), 11-Sandip Sanga, 14-Kaushik Bose, 28-A.Naresh, 10-Badmus Baba Thunde, 12-Jonathan Lalsangzuala (72′ 27-Kenistan C.)

Unused Substitutes
1-Prasanjit Ghosh, 5-Gour Naskar, 25-Dharmesh Patel, 8-Somy P.T, 19-M.C. Dhanesh

Referee: A. Rowan (Services)