East Bengal vs ATK Mohun Bagan Live Streaming: The two bitter foes last clash at the Saltlake Stadium was in the I-League on January 19, 2020, just before the COVID-19 outbreak.(FILE)ISL 2020-21 Highlights: ATK Mohun Bagan seized the bragging rights with a 2-0 win over East Bengal in the eighth match of the new Indian Super League (ISL) season at the Tilak Maidan Stadium in Vasco on Friday.
Both ATKMB and East Bengal started off on their frontfoot, creating chances and making headway right from the start. After the eventful first half ended nil-nil, ATKMB nabbed the lead in the 49th minute through a left-footed strike of Roy Krishna. Despite Anthony Pilkington and Balwant Singh’s attempts of getting an equaliser, ATKMB stood tall. Manvir Singh sealed the deal for the Mariners with a superb solo effort in the 85th minute.
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After four minutes of added time, ATKMB hold on to their 2-0 lead to beat East Bengal and seize the bragging rights. Roy Krishna gave the lead in the 49th minute with a left-footed strike. East Bengal tried to come back into the game with efforts from Balwant Singh and Anthony Pilkington, but Manvir Singh killed the game off with a superb solo effort in the 85th minute for ATKMB.
Habas uses his final two changes to give his players a breather. Brad Inman and Sumit Rathi replace Krishna and Prabir.
After Glan Martins came on to make his debut, Manvir comes up with a moment of brilliance! He chases down a lost cause, and breezes past Narayan Das. He enters the box from the right, checks back onto his left foot, and fires it straight into the top corner.
Dodgy moments for ATKMB! After receiving a backpass, Arindam strikes the ball straight at Pilkington, but gets lucky as the winger isn't able to get his shot away cleanly. Minutes later, Pilkington forces a world class save from the Bengali goalkeeper.
Fowler has made a substitution as Loken Moeitei is replaced by Wahengbam Angousana. Now or never for East Bengal.
Pritam Kotal goes in the book now, as he unceremoniously brings Rafique down after getting turned by the East Bengal man. From the resulting free-kick, Maghoma takes the ball and passes it to Loken just outside of the box... and he shoots way wide.
Pronay Halder and Manvir Singh come on in places of Jayesh Rane and David Williams. East Bengal too make another change -- Mohammed Rafique replaces the misfiring Balwant. How will the final half-an-hour go from here?
MISS! And it's that man Balwant who fluffs his lines again! Pilkington sets off the move with a sensational back-heel towards Loken... he plays Balwant through on the left flank, but the striker shanks his left-footed shot, and Arindam has no problem.
East Bengal make a change to keep themselves in the match. Fowler brings on Abhishek Ambekar in place of Gharami and they have now gone to a flat back four. Ambekar has gone to right-back, with Surchandra more advanced on the flank.
Maghoma is shown the yellow card as he brings Javi down the halfway line. Minutes later, Jhingan finds himself lucky to not be booked by the referee. The centre-back fouled Loken and then followed the play to clatter into Surchandra.
GOAL! Krishna talked about his excitement ahead of the derby and he translates that into a brilliant goal! He receives the ball from Javi Hernandez outside of the box and his left-footed shot makes its way into the back of the net beneath Debjit's left-hand.
ATK Mohun Bagan restart the proceedings. Will the match end goalless or can someone pop up and become a derby hero?
After two minutes of added time, the referee brings the exciting half to an end! East Bengal will be ruing Balwant's miss a lot but they go into the break on a high as they were dominating the passage of play towards the end. All to play for in the second half.
OH NO! Minutes after surviving a scare, East Bengal had the opportunity to go ahead but Balwant completely scuffs a chance. Surchandra crosses it in from right and finds Balwant, but the striker's right-footed attempt goes horribly wrong. Goal kick.
SO CLOSE! Subhasish's throw-in finds Javi in the box and the midfielder's first touch takes him past one defender and then lashes a left-footed half volley. Debjit was aware of the situation and gets a strong hand to it. Nothing comes off of the corner.
Narayan finds himself in space on the left and he crosses it in but Maghoma's header goes wide. On the other hand, Pilkington is yet to make his mark. For a player who has scored against United, Chelsea and City... it has been a rather dull evening.
Javi has another corner cleared by the first man. The ball falls to Pritam, who gets himself into a shooting position. He got into an awkward position with a left-footed shot and it dribbles wide. His team continue to press in the opposition half though.
Balwant is shown the first yellow card of the evening for a foul after a Steinmann pass was intercepted by McHugh. East Bengal are trying to maintain their high tempo approach after being motivated by Pilkington's shot a few minutes earlier.
After Tiri stops Steinmann's pass reaching Balwant behind him, ATKMB start their own attack via Subhashish on the left hand side. He pings one high above everyone's heads... Krishna chases it but Debjit comes out of the box and clears it. Pulsating affair.
CHANCE! Pilkington finds himself at the end of Maghoma's pass, and then he jinks Pritam inside the box. While trying to control the ball with his weaker foot, he falls over after some pressure by Tiri. Nothing doing. ATKMB maintain the possession afterwards.
ATKMB start off on the frontfoot and they win a corner from a clearance. Hernandez takes the set-piece and its too flat for the players to attack. East Bengal recycle the ball and try to keep a bit of early possession to settle in. Throw-ins galore though.
Here we go! East Bengal have set the ball rolling after a minute's silence for the demise of PK Banerjee and Chuni Goswami.
Robbie Fowler has a lot of experience in handling derbies, from Merseyside derby to even the Manchester one. Can he spring a surprise by beating Antonio Habas' experienced team tonight? Will his counter-attacking 3-4-2-1 be fruitful? Stay tuned to find out!
ATK Mohun Bagan XI (3-4-1-2): Arindam Bhattacharya; Pritam Kotal, Sandesh Jhingan, Tiri; Prabir Das, Jayesh Rane, Carl McHugh, Subhasish Bose; Javi Hernandez; David Williams, Roy Krishna
Substitutes: Dheeraj Singh, Sumit Rathi, Glan Martins, Bradden Inman, Sk Sahil, Michael Regin, Boris Singh, Manvir Singh
East Bengal XI (3-4-2-1): Debjit Majumder; Scott Neville, Danny Fox, Rana Gharami; Surchandra Singh, Matti Steinmann, Loken Meitei, Narayan Das; Anthony Pilkington, Jacques Maghoma; Balwant Singh
Substitutes: Sankar Roy, Rohen Singh, Abhishek Ambekar, Mohamed Irshad, Mohammed Rafique, Wahengbam Luwang, Eugeneson Lyngdoh, Jeje Lalpekhlua, Haobam Singh
ATK Mohun Bagan started off from where they had left off last season, getting off to a winning start against Kerala Blasters. All eyes are now on their bitter foes, East Bengal, with a new-look side and a coaching staff headed by Liverpool legend Robbie Fowler. From Krishna to Pilkington to Jhingan to Jeje to Garcia to Fox, the Boro Match is filled with big names this time around.
Hello and welcome to the live commentary of East Bengal vs ATK Mohun Bagan! The Kolkata giants will resume their age-old rivalry on the grander stage of ISL for the first time in history, but without their legion of fans. Who will edge it out?