Riding on Jamie Maclaren's second-minute goal, Mohun Bagan trumped East Bengal 1-0 in Guwahati on Saturday to go eight points clear at the top of the Indian Super League 2024-25 standings. (Highlights | More Football News)
Jamie Maclaren scored the fastest goal of the Kolkata derby in ISL and it was enough for the reigning champions to see out their arch-rivals, while surging to 35 points, eight more th🔜an the second-placed Bengaluru FC
Riding on Jamie Maclaren's second-minute goal, Mohun Bagan trumped East Bengal 1-0 in Guwahati on Saturday to go eight points clear at the top of the Indian Super League 2024-25 standings. (Highlights | More Football News)
The Ma𒅌riners have now won nine of the 10 Kolkata Derby encounters played in ISL, with the other game drawn.
The match was moved to the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium after the Bidhannagar Police, under whose jurisdiction ꦍthe Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata falls, cited concerns ov✅er inadequate security because of the ongoing Gangasagar Mela.
Maclaren scored the fastest goal of the Kolkata derby in ISL and it was enough for the reigning champions to see out their arch-rivals, while surging to 35 points, eight more than the second-placed Bengaluru FC (27).
The Mariners started the game strongly as Maclaren handed them the early lead in the second minute. The East Bengal FC backline was caught off-guard as Asish Rai's long ball found Maclaren in space. After receiving the ball, he lost his marker and slotted it p🤡ast an onrushing Prabhsukhan Gill without an💖y difficulty.
Around the sixth minute mark, it was East Bengal FC's turn to attack and they did get two great o💫pportunities to equalise through PV Vishnu and Cleiton Silva. But, both the players we༺ren't clinical enough as they saw their attempts get blocked.
In the 21st minute, the Mariners almost doubled their lead when Maclaren found Manvir Singh with a telling cross. However, the l🦋atter's shot was straight at Gill with the entire goal f♍ound gaping.
East Bengal FC gained a lot of momentum as the first half came to a close with the likes of Jeakson Singh, Vishnu and Cleiton getting on the ball in the final third and creating problems for the Mohun B꧋agan Super Giant backline. However, they weren't clinical enough to end the first half on level terms.
The second half was extremely cagey with the Mariners enjoying the lion's share of possession, but they weren't able to break down East Bengal FC's resolute defence. Whereas, Oscar Bruzon's men were looking to hit the Mariners with their gritty cou🌊nter-attacks. But there weren't many chances of note in the first quarter of the second hal꧟f.
Things took a drastic turn in the 64th minute when Souvik Chakrabarti brought down Liston Colaco near the penalty area, only to receive his second yellow ca๊rd followed by subsequent marchin🌼g orders.
With one goal down, East Bengal FC were now chasing the game with 10 men. As a retaliation, Bruzon brought on Naorem Mahesh Singh ꦏin place of David Lalhlansanga with the hope of solidifying the midfield.
In the 75th minute, Jose Molina freshened things up as he replaced Jason Cummings with Greg Stewart. He almost made an immediate impact whe🔜n he released Liston on the left flank, but hiꦕs subsequent effort was blocked by Gill.
Just likeꩵ in the first half, East Bengal FC were on the ascendancy for the final 10 minutes in the second half and therefore the likes of Dimitrios Petratos and Deepak Tangri came on late in the game with the hope of closing out the match.
The Red & Golds threw bodies forward in the last few minutes of the gameℱ but they lacked quality in the final third to break th🍨rough the defence of the Mariners as they continued their near-perfect record in the fixture.
(With PTI inputs)