Kaith saves two, and Kolkata gets its first Durand Cup derby final since 2023
Vishal Kaith kept out Robin Yadav and Parthib Gogoi as Mohun Bagan beat holders NorthEast United 4-3 on penalties in Shillong. They play East Bengal at Salt Lake on Sunday.
Aug 21, 2026
Mohun Bagan Super Giant are through to the Durand Cup final, and Kolkata gets a derby to decide it. Vishal Kaith saved two penalties in the shootout at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Shillong on Thursday, 20 August, and the Mariners beat defending champions NorthEast United 4-3 on spot kicks after 90 goalless minutes. They meet East Bengal at the Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan on Sunday, 23 August.
The shootout turned on the fourth kick
Both sides scored their first three. Robin Yadav took NorthEast United’s fourth and Kaith went the right way, then Jamie Maclaren put Mohun Bagan in front from theirs. That left Parthib Gogoi needing to score to keep the holders alive. Kaith saved that one too.
This is becoming his tournament. He had already taken Mohun Bagan through the quarter-final against Jamshedpur on 17 August, in a shootout that reached 9-8 and needed 18 kicks before he saved from Lawmsangzuala in sudden death. That is twice he has kept the Mariners’ Durand Cup alive from 12 yards, inside four days.
Neither side could find a goal in the wet
Shillong was wet, and neither side could hold the ball long enough to build anything. Both went long over the top for much of the first 20 minutes. Liston Colaco’s free-kick was the first shot on target and Gurmeet Singh saved it well. Kiyan Nassiri shot from a narrow angle instead of squaring it and found the side-netting.
Alaaeddine Ajaraie volleyed just past the post at the half-hour after taking a set-piece down out of the air. Just before the break Sahal Abdul Samad won the ball in midfield, saw Gurmeet off his line and went for it from distance, and the goalkeeper got back to claw it away.
NorthEast United had the better of the second half without ever finding a finish. Ajaraie could not quite reach a low ball across from Abdul Rabeeh on the hour, then crossed for Etyan Gonzalez, whose header went nowhere near the target. Macarton Nickson also found the side-netting after a move that switched from the left flank to the right. Juan Pedro Benali’s side will feel they created enough. They did not take any of it.
The 2024 final, run backwards
NorthEast United came into this chasing a third Durand Cup in a row. They beat Diamond Harbour 6-1 in last year’s final and, in 2024, they beat this same Mohun Bagan side in the final: Mohun Bagan led 2-0, NorthEast pulled it back to 2-2, and it went 4-3 on penalties. The goalkeeper who saved two that night was Gurmeet Singh, who was in the NorthEast goal again on Thursday.
Two years on, the same two clubs, the same shootout score, the other way round. Panagiotis Dilimperis had made two changes to his XI beforehand, bringing in Samir Zeljkovic for Anirudh Thapa in midfield and Nassiri for Dejan Drazic up front. Benali’s two changes were both defensive, Soraisham Dinesh Singh and Pramveer Singh coming in.
Sunday is the first derby final in three years
Mohun Bagan and East Bengal have not met in a Durand Cup final since 2023, when Mohun Bagan won it 1-0. East Bengal’s last title in the competition remains 2004, a 22-year wait their supporters have been counting down all fortnight. They got here by beating SC Delhi on penalties on 19 August.
Mohun Bagan are the tournament’s most successful club with 17 titles. East Bengal are one behind on 16. The two have already played each other once in this edition, in the opening match of the 135th Durand Cup on 25 July at the same Salt Lake ground, and Sahal settled that one 1-0.