Gill saves twice, and East Bengal are 90 minutes from ending a 22-year Durand Cup wait
A goalless semi-final at Salt Lake went to penalties, where East Bengal won 5-3. Their goalkeeper had already kept Sporting Club Delhi out from the spot once in normal time.
Aug 20, 2026
Ninety minutes at the Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan produced no goals, three hits off the woodwork and one saved penalty. It took a shootout to separate East Bengal and Sporting Club Delhi in the first semi-final of the 135th Durand Cup on Wednesday night, and when it came, Prabhsukhan Singh Gill had already done the hard part twice.
Gill’s night, in two penalties
The first came in the 33rd minute. Rodriguinho got away from the East Bengal defence, went down for a spot-kick, and then had to watch Gill get across to keep it out. The second arrived in the shootout, when Juan Sebastian Pena’s effort was the only one of nine that did not go in.
East Bengal went first and never gave the lead back. Anwar Ali scored, Pena was saved, Rohit Danu made it two. Rodriguinho converted his second chance of the night from twelve yards, Lalchungnunga and Duvan Felipe Viafara Mina traded goals, and Christopher Ikonomidis and Mohammed Aimen did the same. That left captain Mohamad Basim Rashid with the kick to finish it. He took it, and East Bengal were through 5-3.
The chances that should have made it simpler
Rashid had already spent the evening not scoring. His free-kick in the 16th minute came back off the crossbar, and another attempt late on found the woodwork too. Jesin T.K. Thonikkara hit a post in between. Sporting Club Delhi, in the competition for the first time in the club’s history, had Rodriguinho’s penalty and not a great deal else, which is not how the rest of their tournament has gone. He arrived this summer and scored seven goals in three games on the way here, more than anyone else in the competition.
There was no extra time. Under the tournament’s rules the match went from the final whistle straight to the shootout. East Bengal had not needed one to get this far: PV Vishnu’s 38th-minute header beat Indian Army FT 1-0 in the quarter-final at the same ground.
Twenty-two years, and one match left
East Bengal have won the Durand Cup 16 times, a total bettered only by Mohun Bagan’s 17. The last of them came in 2004, when Chandan Das scored twice against Mohun Bagan and the second went in at the death. Nobody in the current squad was playing senior football then. They reached the final again in 2023 and lost it 1-0, to Mohun Bagan.
The final is on Sunday, 23 August, back at Salt Lake. Who they play is settled on Thursday evening in Shillong, where Mohun Bagan Super Giant meet NorthEast United at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium at 7pm. Either outcome is loaded. Mohun Bagan hold the record East Bengal are chasing. NorthEast United have won the last two editions, beating Mohun Bagan on penalties in 2024 and thrashing Diamond Harbour 6-1 last year, and a third in a row would put them alongside East Bengal’s own run of three from 1989 to 1991.