NorthEast United nearly surprised themselves, East Bengal definitely did. Erasing a two-goal deficit to push the semi-final of the Indian Oil 132nd Durand Cup into penalties and then winning 7 (2)-5 (2) was not the kind of story they had written in the past three seasons.
By beating Mohun Bagan Super Giant earlier in the competition, for the first time in over four years, Carles Cuadrat’s team had dropped a hint that this term could be different. Confirmation came on Tuesday with Nandhakumar Sekar again playing an important role.
In the tie-breaker, which happened directly after regulation time, East Bengal converted all their shots through Celiton Silva, Saul Crespo, Borja Herrera, Mahesh Naorem and Nandhakumar. For NorthEast, Ibsen Pereira, Gani Nigam and Pragyan Gogoi scored after his brother Parthib Gogoi blasted his re-taken shot, which had been saved by East Bengal goalie Prabhsukhan Gill, into the horizontal.
Always in a flux, NorthEast were a little over a minute of stoppage time, of which there was eight in the second half, away from their maiden Durand Cup final. That was when Miguel Zabaco, who had scored off a glancing header in the 22nd minute, had to take one for the team and foul Siverio. It was his second booking of the evening and the visiting team had to see out the game with 10.
From the free-kick, Siverio headed across the goal but NorthEast goalie Mirshad got a hand to deny Saul Crespo. Cleiton Silva kept the move alive with a chip which Nandhakumar, scorer of the only goal in the Kolkata derby on August 12, headed home with the clock showing 90+7.
Down 0-2 till the 77th minute when Naorem’s shot took a deflection off defender Dinesh Singh and left Mirshad stranded, East Bengal had managed to stretch the game in a way that rarely looked possible since they debuted in ISL in 2020-21.
The East Bengal of the past few seasons would have crumbled when Phalguni Singh had made it 2-0 in the 57th minute with a solo effort. Cuadrat’s men though never stopped trying. It meant oodles of patience against opponents sitting deep after surprising East Bengal early with their press. The shoulders did not droop when Dinesh pulled off an excellent header to deny Naorem, when Nandhakumar blasted over or when he opened his shoulders and let fly like he had against Mohun Bagan but was denied by Mirshad. That was in the 87th minute and in trying to regain possession, Siverio tried to exaggerate a fall in the hope of getting a penalty. It wasn’t given so East Bengal gathered themselves and went again. This was a lesson in perseverance Thursday’s semi-finalists Mohun Bagan and FC Goa will have taken note of.
It wasn’t pretty. With a clutch of new players and a new coaching staff, East Bengal are far from that. Nandhakumar had had better games in his short stint in a red-and-gold shirt, the quality of deliveries was poor, NorthEast had managed to keep the home team away from their goal for long periods and it was because East Bengal had delayed closing down Phalguni that they had conceded.
Yet, from leaking two goals in the opener against a Bangladesh Army team to this, East Bengal have grown in the Durand Cup. Though it was only the framework that made the difference, Nandhakumar’s goal had shifted the momentum. NorthEast couldn’t manage a game they had done well to go ahead once in each half but they didn’t play like a team that had gathered only five points in ISL9, the least in the history of the competition, or one that was in the bottom two in three of the last four seasons.
Crucial to the uptick in the performance was Phalguni. Till this evening, the 28-year-old was a journeyman who had worked his way up through the Manipur state league and the I-League. That changed with a goal and an assist, the former from a stunning left-footer after cutting in and the latter from his right foot that had just enough bend for Zabaco to swoop ahead of East Bengal central defender Lalchungnunga.
Like East Bengal, NorthEast have appointed a new coach – Juan Pedro Benali is their 12th in 10 seasons the team has been around – and overhauled the squad. It did enough in the season’s first competition to look ahead with hope.