East Bengal – Mohun Bagan tie no longer has that hair-raising thrill it used to have eons ago. In those times, the whole city and the suburbs would be immersed in hot discussions at every nook and corner, and the football fever would take long time to ebb. Not so these days.
One reason may be that the 2 teams meet frequently now. Gone are days when the Durands, the Rovers and the IFA Shields’ would see the 2 giants playing in 2 groups so that they meet, if they do, only at the finals, or at the most in semis.
Now in NFL, every participating team must play one another 2 times – a ‘home’ and an ‘away’ match. In case of EB and MB, both take place in the city. In addition, the two play each other in CFL, IFA Shield, and, if chance allows, in Fed Cup as well.
Another prominent reason of diminishing interest in their matches has to so with the fact that they have very few talented homegrown players in their ranks. The focus is firmly on foreign recruits and they steal maximum limelight.
Be that as it may, yesterday’s 2nd NFL tie between the 2 teams saw EB winning 1-0. With this, out of 279 matches between them, EB has won 106 of them against MB’s 75, while 98 were drawn. In terms of wins, EB has supremacy over MB in every major tourney including NFL, where it has won 9 matches against MB’s 4 (5 drawn). Overall, EB has till date scored 243 goals against its archrival as against MB’s 195. See the numbers here.
Delving more in records, the very first-ever clash between them resulted in an 1-0 win for East Bengal with N. Chakravarty scoring the all-important goal. The only hat-trick ever in an East Bengal-Mohun Bagan match was scored by Baichung Bhutia when East Bengal defeated Mohun Bagan 4-1 in Federation Cup semi in 1997. And, the biggest ever margin in their duel is another East Bengal win by a margin of 5-0 in the 1975 IFA Shield (see here)
Considering that MB is established in 1889, a good 31 years before EB is founded in 1920, the latter’s record is a clear indication of how better EB is run compared to MB. It’s another matter of course that I support EB – a bangal that’s what’s me!
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