Jamshedpur FC vs Mohun Bagan: Red Miners' win, Manvir Singh's absence and other talking points

Mohun Bagan will face Jamshedpur FC for the second leg on April 7.

Jamshedpur FC picked up a hard-fought 2-1 win over Mohun Bagan in the first leg of their 2024-25 Indian Super League semi-final clash on Thursday (3 April). The Red Machines were inspired by goals from Javier Siverio and Javi Hernandez, helping them get the advantage in the semi-final heading into the second leg at the Salt Lake Stadium, Kolkata.

It was a pretty eventful game at the JRD Tata Sports Complex, with both teams getting plenty of chances to score. However, the ISL league shield winners failed to tap into their clinical form, failing to score from open range and lacking that special spark in the final third.

An extra-time goal by Javi Hernandez and Jamshedpur FC take a slender lead as they look for a spot in ISL Final, but an exciting leg at VYBK stands in their way! #IndianFootball #ISL #LetsFootball #ISLSemis #JFCMBSG pic.twitter.com/b9NwvQwQJX

— Khel Now (@KhelNow) April 3, 2025

Ultimately, the hosts showed an admirable defensive resolve and took their chances to get a big win that bolsters their chances of reaching the ISL final. Here are the talking points from this clash.

Inspired Pronay Halder continues comeback by haunting his former side

Pronay Halder did not complete a full 90 minutes in the 2024-25 ISL league phase. He has now done so in the last two playoffs clashes for Jamshedpur FC. After an impressive display in the win over NorthEast United, Halder faced a comparatively harder task against Mohun Bagan. However, the 32-year-old fearlessly approached this game to neutralize the threat of the Mariners’ forward line. He constantly kept ruining their chances, making eight clearances and two vital blocks, including a potential goal-saving one in the second half.

He did his job in a no-nonsense fashion, even avoiding a booking and keeping his aggression to a minimum. For a player who missed almost the entirety of the 2023-24 season with an injury and was dismissed as a ‘has been’ with only seven appearances in the 24-25 league phase, Halder proved that he still has that spark left in him. His performance as a makeshift centre-back was quite inspiring and a fitting reward for his hard work in getting back to his best after a nasty injury spell.

Manvir Singh’s absence causes major problem for Mohun Bagan

The big absences for Mohun Bagan in this game was that of Manvir Singh and Lalengmawia Ralte. The Mariners were especially made to rue the unavailability of their hard-working winger. Manvir was replaced with Sahal Abdul Samad in a makeshift right-wing role. While Sahal worked hard in that position, he didn’t look an ideal fit for it at all. He struggled to track back properly and give more defensive cover to Asish Rai, who was tormented by Jamshedpur’s movement through his side.

Rai was often left all alone to defend against the opposition wide players, disrupting the Mohun Bagan defensive shape and causing gaps to open up in the backline. Normally, Manvir works hard to track back deep into his half to win duels against opposition wingers and allow Rai to stay in line with his centre-backs. But the lack of physicality that Singh brings and his defensive diligence caused Jamshedpur FC to target that particular Mohun Bagan wing, with both their goals ultimately coming from that side.

Mohun Bagan’s defensive midfield issues laid bare against Jamshedpur FC

The Mariners opted against signing a sturdy defensive midfielder who can shield their backline from trouble in the two transfers window in the 2024-25 season. To their credit, their sturdy defensive line’s performances ensured that this didn’t affect them for the majority of the campaign. However, that minor issue came back to haunt them in the game against Jamshedpur FC.

Mohun Bagan didn’t have that reliable midfielder who could track back or stop the Jamshedpur FC fast-break moves through the central areas. The lack of a proper defensive midfielder was also why Javi Hernandez had all the space to score that winning goal. Neither Anirudh Thapa nor Deepak Tangri are exactly reliable defensive midfielders, with the latter having real trouble dealing with Jamshedpur’s midfielders and failing to make a single tackle or interception in the game. Perhaps the way Mohun Bagan struggled against the counter-attacks gives incentive to their management to push for a quality defensive midfielder’s signing in the summer.

Brave Jamshedpur FC rewarded for fearless approach

Jamshedpur FC have definitely come a long way in terms of approaching how to play against Mohun Bagan since their 3-0 loss suffered in the league phase. Khalid Jamil probably realized that simply parking the bus would not give his side any advantage in the first leg of the semi-final. While the Men of Steel allowed the Kolkata side to dominate possession (73% as well!), their approach wasn’t one to simply sit back and just hit on the counter-attacks. Neither of the goals came from counters.

Jamshedpur FC kept pushing at the Mohun Bagan backline when they did have the ball, using the wide areas really smartly. Jamil urged his speedy wide players to run at the opposition defenders than just go with a patient, slow build-up. He urged his players to be fearless in running forward with the ball rather than worrying about just the defensive duties.

That was justified in them scoring the late goal after a smart attacking move where they capitalized on the tiredness of the Mohun Bagan players. Jamshedpur FC will face a whole different ordeal in the second leg in Kolkata, but if they can maintain this fearlessness in their attacking move, they might even be able to pop up with an upset.

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