Mohun Bagan needed 18 penalties to reach a semi-final against the team that beat them on penalties
The 135th Durand Cup semi-final line-up was settled on Monday: Mohun Bagan survived a 9-8 shootout with Jamshedpur, and Alaaeddine Ajaraie’s hat-trick in the Shillong rain sent the two-time holders through to meet them.
Aug 18, 2026
The last four of the 135th Durand Cup was settled on Monday night, and one half of it needed eighteen penalties to get there.
Eighteen penalties at Salt Lake
Mohun Bagan Super Giant led Jamshedpur FC inside two minutes through Sahal Abdul Samad and then spent the rest of the afternoon failing to add to it. Devendra Murgaonkar levelled before half-time. Nothing came after it, so a 4pm kick-off at the Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan went to penalties, and the penalties would not end. Both sides converted their first eight. In sudden death Vishal Kaith saved from Lawmsangzuala, Tekcham Abhishek Singh buried the next one, and Mohun Bagan were through 9-8.
Ajaraie in the rain in Shillong
The other quarter-final, kicking off three hours later at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Shillong, looked like going the other way at the break. NorthEast United were ahead through Alaaeddine Ajaraie in the 11th minute. Then Shillong Lajong scored twice in fourteen minutes, Figo Syndai in the 20th and Jota in the 34th, and the home side led their northeastern derby 2-1 at half-time in torrential rain.
Whatever was said in the interval worked. Etyan Gonzalez equalised in the 55th, Ajaraie put NorthEast back in front three minutes later, and he completed his hat-trick in the 69th. Jithin MS made it 5-2 with eleven minutes to go. Four goals without reply, on a pitch that had been under water an hour before.
Ajaraie’s first of the night drew him level with SC Delhi’s Rodriguinho at the top of the tournament’s scoring charts. The two after it left him there alone. Rodriguinho is not a bad man to have overtaken: he scored five in a single group match, a 7-0 win over the Sri Lankan side Defenders FC.
The semi-final Mohun Bagan will not have wanted
Mohun Bagan get NorthEast United on Thursday, 20 August, at 7pm IST in Shillong. Two years ago the same two clubs met in the Durand Cup final and Mohun Bagan led it by two goals. Ajaraie and Guillermo Fernandez hauled NorthEast level in the second half, Gurmeet Singh saved two spot kicks in the shootout, and NorthEast United won 4-3 for the first trophy in the club’s history. They kept it in 2025, beating Diamond Harbour in the final.
So the holders are at home, with the tournament’s leading scorer, against a side that has already had one shootout this week. NorthEast United are going for a third Durand Cup in a row. Mohun Bagan are going for an 18th.
A derby final is four days away
The other semi-final comes first. East Bengal, who got past Indian Army FT through a PV Vishnu header, play SC Delhi at the VYBK on Wednesday, 19 August, also at 7pm. Delhi have not lost a match in this tournament. Win, and East Bengal are in Sunday’s final at the same ground. If Mohun Bagan come through Shillong, the 135th Durand Cup ends in a Kolkata derby.
The last one is recent enough to sting. The 2023 final was East Bengal against Mohun Bagan at Salt Lake, and Mohun Bagan won it 1-0 through Dimitri Petratos in the 71st minute, playing with ten men after Anirudh Thapa was sent off nine minutes earlier. That was Mohun Bagan’s 17th Durand Cup, a record, and their first in 23 years. East Bengal have 16 and have not won one since 2004.