An 8-0, three hat-tricks and a 1-0 derby: the Durand Cup group stage so far
Why the group stage of Asia’s oldest football tournament keeps producing lopsided scorelines, and what it means for the quarter-final race that starts on 16 August.
Aug 2, 2026
The 135th Durand Cup is eight days old and has already produced an 8-0, a 6-0, a 5-0 and three hat-tricks. It has also produced a Kolkata derby decided by one tap-in at the far post. Both of those are the tournament working exactly as built, which is the part worth sitting with.
What a 24-team field actually looks like
Asia’s oldest football tournament runs from 25 July to 23 August this year, with 24 teams spread across five cities and six grounds. Ranchi is hosting for the first time. The field reaches from Indian Super League clubs down through the Indian Football League, I-League 2 and 3, state leagues and the armed forces sides, and it includes Defenders FC, a Sri Lankan armed forces team. Seven of the 24 are making their Durand debut.
Put a squad drawn from that top tier against one from the bottom of it and you get what East Bengal did to CISF Protectors at the Kishore Bharati Krirangan on 31 July. PV Vishnu scored a hat-trick that included an overhead kick and a backheel, Jesin TK got two, Jeakson Singh and Bipin Singh added one each, and the CISF captain put through his own net. It was 3-0 at the interval and 8-0 at the end, equalling the biggest winning margin in the competition’s history.
NorthEast United opened their title defence the same way on 1 August in Guwahati, beating Bodoland 6-0 with an Alaaeddine Ajaraie hat-trick after leading only 1-0 at half-time. Jamshedpur had already beaten Defenders FC 5-0 in Ranchi on 26 July, Raynier Fernandes scoring three on his debut, two of them inside the opening six minutes.
The derby was a different tournament
Then there is the game that opened the whole thing. Mohun Bagan beat East Bengal 1-0 at the Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan on 25 July, Sahal Abdul Samad arriving unmarked at the far post early in the second half to finish into an empty net. Both clubs started all-Indian XIs. Mohun Bagan had the ball and the shot count and still needed 50-odd minutes to break a defence that held its shape.
That is the Durand Cup people actually turn up for, and it is why the lopsided results are easier to forgive than they look on a scoreline grid. The tournament is one of the few places a state-league side gets a competitive fixture against an ISL first team, and the price of that access is the occasional eight-goal afternoon.
Why the big scores carry weight
The format gives them teeth. Six groups of four, one game against each opponent, and only the six group winners plus the two best second-placed teams reach the quarter-finals. Three matches is a small sample, so goal difference turns into hard currency very early.
Look at East Bengal’s week in that light. They lost the derby, then put eight past CISF. That looks less like a side enjoying itself and more like one doing the arithmetic on what a runners-up place might cost. There have been 38 goals in the first 12 matches, and in both of the heaviest wins the losing side shipped five of them after the interval.
What comes next
The quarter-finals are on 16 and 17 August, split between Ranchi, Kolkata and Shillong. The semi-finals follow on 19 and 20 August, and the final is at the Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan on 23 August.
My guess is that the group stage keeps producing these gaps right up to the last round, and that the tournament proper only starts on 16 August, when the ISL sides finally have to play each other. NorthEast United are the holders and have begun with six goals. On the evidence of the opening week, the teams to worry about are the ones who found a way to win 1-0.