East Bengal 4 – 1 Mohun Bagan

Diamond Captured in front of Record Crowd

Report by Kankan Chatterjee

Date: 13th July, 1997
Venue: Yuva Bharati Krirangan, Saltlake, Kolkata
Occasion: Federation Cup Semi Final

East Bengal once again rose to the occasion and answer all the critics en route humiliating Mohun Bagan 4-1 in the Fed Cup Semi Finals in 1997. Before this match, all the Football followers almost drew the picture of a MB victory in their mind, thanks to some Football analyst who termed Mohun Bagan as invincible following their tremendous form in the season. On their road to the semis Mohun Bagan thrashed Vasco 6-0 and other teams by somewhat same margins, thanks to a new system, 3-2-3-2 termed as Diamond, introduced by their coach Amal Dutta. The famous P.K. – Amal rivalry attracted 1 lakh 31 thousands spectator to the YBK on 13th evening. The match had so much impact in the nation that the Broadcast Ministry was compelled to broadcast the match LIVE on Doordarshan. But since the announcement was too late, it resulted a record attendance in the History of World Football in a Match comprising of 2 Club teams. That too in a weekday, i.e. working day. Even European or Latin American Football followers are taken aback when they face this fact. They can’t even imagine of such excitement in a Club encounter. This clearly shown the impact of East Bengal – Mohun Bagan rivalry in the heart of Indian people.