 "East Bengal vs Mohun Bagan SG, ISL 2024-25: Revisiting H2H record and rivalry origins ahead of 400th 'Kolkata Derby'")
The Indian Super League (ISL) is set to witness its biggest fixture of the 11th season season so far with East Bengal FC locking horns with defending league champions Mohun Bagan Super Giant in Kolkata on Saturday. While Mohun Bagan will be aiming to jump to the second spot on the points table with a win in Saturday’s Derby at the Yuva Bharati Krirangan, a.k.a Salt Lake Stadium, East Bengal will be desperate to turn their fortunes around as they eye their first win of the season.
ISL 2024-25 | Where to watch 'Kolkata Derby' LIVE on TV and online
The two teams weren’t originally part of the ISL, which has been in existence since 2014 and whose introduction resulted in the I-League becoming the second division of Indian football. Mohun Bagan and East Bengal, however, are almost synonymous with Indian football, with fierce rivalry between the two Kolkata giants having lasted for more than a century now and is among the biggest in Asian club football.
Their rivalry, after all, is fuelled by the cultural difference between the ‘Ghotis’ — Bengalis hailing from present-day West Bengal – and ‘Bangals’ – those who migrated from East Bengal (present-day Bangladesh) primarily during the Partition of India in 1947 and the 1971 war.
The City of Joy turns into a battlefield! 🔥
— Indian Super League (@IndSuperLeague) October 18, 2024
Watch #EBFCMBSG LIVE only on October 19, 7:30PM, on @JioCinema, @Sports18-3, and #AsianetPlus! 📺#ISL #LetsFootball #EastBengalFC #MBSG #KolkataDerby | @eastbengal_fc @mohunbagansg pic.twitter.com/f4zxuNY4Ax
Saturday’s contest will also be the first ‘Derby’ of the season, which was originally supposed to take place in the Durand Cup in July and August but was ultimately cancelled due to protests against the RG Kar Medical College rape-murder case. While East Bengal were knocked out by Shilling Lajong FC in the quarter-finals, Mohun Bagan SG went all the way to the final, where they were held to a 2-2 draw by NorthEast United FC and lost 3-4 in the penalty shootout.
Ahead of the historic 400th ‘Kolkata Derby’, known popularly as the ‘Boro Match’ or simply ‘Boro’ (big in Bangla), we take a look at the head-to-head record between two iconic clubs – in the ISL as well as overall – and the origins of their rivalry:
Mohun Bagan vs East Bengal overall head-to-head record:
Matches: 399
East Bengal won: 142
Mohun Bagan won: 130
Draws: 127
Nearly half of the meetings (162) between the two Kolkata giants have taken place in the Calcutta Football League (CFL), the oldest football league in Asia that is organised by the Indian Football Association but is limited to West Bengal.
Mohun Bagan and East Bengal have also faced each other 45 times in the National Football League (NFL), which would become the I-League in 2007, and 41 times in the IFA Shield, which was established five years before the CFL and is the third oldest football tournament in India.
Mohun Bagan vs East Bengal head-to-head record in the ISL:
Matches: 8
East Bengal won: 0
Mohun Bagan won: 7
Draws: 1
East Bengal are yet to defeat Mohun Bagan in the ISL since the two sides first met on 27 November 2020 at the Tilak Maiden in Vasco da Gama, Goa, which ended in a 2-0 victory for the Mariners. The only time East Bengal managed to collect a point against Mohun Bagan in the ISL was when the two sides played out an entertaining 2-2 draw at YBK on 3 February this year.
When did Mohun Bagan and East Bengal first meet on the football pitch?
The first ever match between the two teams had taken place on 8 August, 1921 during the semi-finals of the Coochbehar Cup, the match ending in a goalless draw.
The two sides would meet again two days later in a replay of the semi-final, and this time Mohun Bagan would emerge triumphant by a 3-0 margin. Rabi Ganguly scored the first ever goal in the history of the derby, with Poltu Dasgupta and Abhilash Ghosh the other goal-scorers for the Mariners.
The first official match between the two sides, however, would take place on 28 May, 1925 in which a solitary goal from Nepal Chakraborty helped East Bengal defeat Mohun Bagan 1-0.
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