East Bengal clash against Mohun Bagan in the 135th Durand Cup
The Mariners come into the tournament as the most accomplished club, with 17 Durand Cup titles
The two sides have clashed more than 20 times in the tournament, with East Bengal holding a slight lead
East Bengal FC is set to face off against Mohun Bagan Super Giant in the Kolkata Derby on Saturday, July 25. This match will kick off the 135th Durand Cup at the Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan.
There's no better way for Asia's oldest football tournament to start than with this iconic clash, giving the first whistle of the season to a rivalry that truly represents Indian club football. The match is set to begin at 17:00 IST.
Let's begin with the numbers that tell the story, because in this rivalry, statistics are more than mere figures. The Mariners come into the tournament as the most accomplished club, with 17 Durand Cup titles under their belt, a record that no other team has been able to replicate in the long history of this competition.
The Red and Gold Brigade is just a trophy away, with 16 titles, making each new match between these two feel like a pivotal moment to either close the distance or increase it.
The two sides have clashed more than 20 times in the tournament, with East Bengal holding a slight lead. They have also competed in a dozen Durand Cup finals, the latest being in 2004, where East Bengal won six times, while Mohun Bagan took four victories, and two finals were shared.
In this very matchup in 2023, the record champions finally ended a 23-year wait for the trophy, triumphing over their old rivals 1-0 in the final to secure their 17th title. Few rivalries anywhere have this kind of built-in tension.
However, history isn't the only thread weaving through this narrative. The reigning ISL champions come in after finally clinching a national league title last season, and that victory carries with them into the Durand Cup like a tailwind. There's a strong sense of confidence within a squad that has recently savored the ultimate achievement in Indian club football, and the Red and Gold supporters will pack the stands, feeling that this is a team that's not just in the race against their oldest rivals, but truly constructed to overcome them.
Midfielder Jeakson Singh Thounaojam, part of that title-winning group, put it plainly when asked about the mood in camp under new head coach Antonio Lopez Habas and said, "We are getting together as a family, and at the end of last season we achieved our objective. I'm really looking forward to this new season, to achieve the same objective with more determination," he said. "With the coach, and the trophies he has won, it will be a pleasure for me to play under him, for East Bengal. Obviously, for me, we are the favourite team."
Both benches, however, will have unfamiliar figures pacing them. Mohun Bagan Super Giant begin life under Panagiotis Dilmperis, the Greek coach who spent two seasons quietly excellent at Punjab FC before the Mariners came calling, and who now inherits a squad several notches richer than the one he left behind, headlined by the arrival of Miguel Figueira Damasceno.
Speaking to the media ahead of his first game in the dugout, Dilmperis made no attempt to play down the scale of what awaits him and said, "Starting with a derby against East Bengal is something that makes me feel excited, because this is the reason why football exists," he said. "Joining a club like Mohun Bagan, with this fan base, the owner, the history and huge expectations, creates for me not anxiety but big motivation."
Figueira's signing carries its own quiet poetry. Barely a year after arriving in Indian football, the Brazilian midfielder was named the ISL's best player and walked away with the Golden Ball, a central figure in East Bengal's title triumph. Now he wears green and maroon, and should he take the field on Saturday, it may well be his first taste of just how personal this fixture can feel from the other side of the divide.
The reinforcements up front have arrived too. Dejan Drazic, the Serbian forward brought in to sharpen a cutting edge that occasionally deserted the Kolkata giants last season, landed in the city only days ago and has already been given a proper introduction to what he has signed up for, saying, "For every player, foreigner or Indian, it is amazing to play a game like a derby in Kolkata," he said. "I was very surprised at the airport, this is the first time that has happened to me, and I am very grateful for that welcome. We are Mohun Bagan, and like everybody, we expect to win this game."
Across the touchline, East Bengal FC have turned to a coach who knows exactly what waits for him at the other end of the pitch, because he has stood there himself. Antonio Lopez Habas, the veteran Spanish tactician, takes charge of the Red and Gold Brigade having previously guided the Mariners to the 2023-24 ISL League Shield, arriving mid-season to steady a wavering campaign and steer it unbeaten to the title.
Asked whether facing his old club stirred any nostalgia, Habas was matter-of-fact about it and said, "No nostalgia. We have to think about the present and the future, because the past is the past," he said. "I absolutely respect my trajectory in India, with my players and the fans. But now it's another job, another side, for professional life. I have to fight for my dream now."
Few coaching arrivals anywhere in Indian football carry that particular symmetry, a man returning to the ground of his old triumph, this time hoping to spoil it for the side that now owns it.
There is a recent thread here too. This time last year, East Bengal had the upper hand in this fixture at the business end of the Durand Cup, edging past the record champions in a tightly fought quarter-final at this very stadium. That contest lingers in the memory of both camps, a reminder that recent form has been anything but one-sided.
None of it, in the end, will matter quite as much as what happens once the whistle goes. The Yuba Bharati Krirangan, home of the Durand Cup's Kolkata leg since 2019, has hosted this fixture before and will again, but an opener carries its own charge, a whole season unfurling from a single evening.
Saturday will not settle the argument between East Bengal FC and Mohun Bagan Super Giant. It never really does. But it will set the tone for a tournament, and there is nowhere better in world football for that tone to be set than under the lights of Kolkata, with a Derby to open the show.
