The Durand Cup quarter-finals are set, and Mohammedan are not in them

The group stage of the 135th IndianOil Durand Cup finished on Thursday night, and the last eight fell into place with it. Twenty-four teams became eight. The quarter-finals start on Sunday in Ranchi and Kolkata. Mohammedan SC, one of the three clubs that carry Kolkata football, are not in them.

Six winners and two who got in on goal difference

The format did most of the sorting. Twenty-four sides were split into six groups of four, the six group winners went through, and the two best second-placed teams filled the rest of the draw. That left the quarter-finals with Mohun Bagan Super Giant, Indian Army FT, SC Delhi, FC Raengdai, Shillong Lajong and NorthEast United as group toppers, plus East Bengal and Jamshedpur FC as the best of the runners-up.

Mohun Bagan were the cleanest of the lot. Three matches, three wins, nothing conceded: 1-0 against East Bengal in the derby that opened the tournament on 25 July, Sahal Abdul Samad scoring in the 52nd minute, then 8-0 against South United and 6-0 against CISF Protectors. SC Delhi were not far behind in Group C. They came from a goal down to beat Jamshedpur 2-1 in Ranchi, then put seven past Defenders FC and seven more past the Indian Air Force to finish on nine points and sixteen goals.

Mohammedan lost to a debutant, then to the Army

Mohammedan started the way they were supposed to, 4-0 against Baghpat FC. Then Samaleswari Sporting beat them 3-2 on 2 August. Samaleswari are an I-League 3 side from Sambalpur in Odisha, playing their first Durand Cup, and their winner came from a substitute’s free-kick nine minutes from time.

That result did the damage. It left Mohammedan needing to beat Indian Army FT in the final group game on 12 August, and the Army, who needed only a draw, won it 2-1 with a stoppage-time goal from Shafeel P.P. Three points from three matches and third place in Group B, behind a military side and a club from Sambalpur playing at this level for the first time.

Samaleswari finished on six points and went out too, because the second-placed spots were settled on goal difference and theirs was never going to be enough.

East Bengal got through on the goals they put past the small teams

East Bengal lost the only match in their group anybody was watching, and qualified anyway. After the derby defeat their tournament turned into an exercise in running up the score: 8-0 against CISF Protectors on 31 July, with a hat-trick from P.V. Vishnu that equalled the biggest winning margin in the competition’s history, then 5-0 against South United. Six points, thirteen scored, one conceded.

Plus twelve was the best goal difference of any second-placed side, which is how a team that lost its derby ends up in the quarter-finals. Jamshedpur took the other place on plus ten, built on a 5-0 against Defenders FC and a 6-0 against the Air Force either side of that defeat to SC Delhi.

What the last eight looks like

SC Delhi meet FC Raengdai at the Birsa Munda Stadium in Ranchi on Sunday afternoon, and Indian Army FT play East Bengal at the Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan in Kolkata the same evening. Monday brings Mohun Bagan against Jamshedpur at the same Kolkata ground, then Shillong Lajong against NorthEast United at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Shillong.

That last one is the tie of the round. NorthEast United are the holders, they won all three group games and beat FC1 3-1 with two more from Parthib Gogoi to seal it, and they now have to go to Shillong and beat a Lajong side that has not lost. Lajong drew 3-3 with Langsning on Thursday, conceding an equaliser deep into stoppage time, and still topped Group E on seven points.

East Bengal have the harder Sunday. The Army have won every match they have played in this tournament, and they have just knocked out one Kolkata club already.

The final is on 23 August.

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