Durand Cup 2019 Preview: Mighty Mohun Bagan face Mohammedan Sporting in tournament opener

The Mariners are one of the two teams to win the tournament most number of times (16).

With the 129th Durand Cup all set to kickoff in Kolkata on Friday, the opening game is a big one between two of Indian football’s oldest clubs. Mohun Bagan, the most decorated side in Durand history, face the last team from the city to win the competition in Mohammedan Sporting.

Both sides have churned up a completely different unit for next season and this will be their first challenge. The Mariners, in particular, have made a flurry of impressive signings to create a strong side for the upcoming season after having a disappointing I-League campaign last time around.

Coach's Corner

Kibu Vicuna (Mohun Bagan)

The newly-appointed Mohun Bagan boss seemed confident heading into his first official game as head coach and sang praises of the competition. He said, “The Durand Cup is a very special tournament, one of the best tournaments in India. We know about Mohun Bagan’s success in it and it’s important for us along with the Calcutta League. We are happy to participate in the competition and looking forward to playing tomorrow.”

Speaking about how ready his side is going into the tournament he explained, “We are training around one hour with the team. It’s a new team with new players, so this process will take time. For sure, in two months we are going to be better than tomorrow. But, we are preparing for the competition and are ready to play. We have things to improve, but I’m happy with the performance level of the team.”

When asked about his feelings on playing in both the Durand Cup and Calcutta Football League simulteounsly Vicuna said, “We play every three days. I don’t like excuses. We have to play our best with our squad of 25-26 players. Every player wants to play and we’ll try to compete as best as possible in both competitions.”

The Spanish manager was very expressive when speaking about his style of play and delivered some bold words. He stated,” “I like the Spanish style of football, but for me, tiki-taka doesn’t mean anything. It’s not like I don’t like Spanish style, but I don’t like the concept of tiki-taka. Passing game doesn’t only work for me. What is dominant in Spanish football is a possessional game. It means we’ll play with possession to score goals.

“What we’re trying to do is we want to play attacking football. We’ll try to be a proactive team who has the ball and score goals, and when we don’t have the ball we try to recover it. Sometimes, we can win as expected and sometimes you can’t win as expected before,” he further explained.

Moreover, asked about his personal feelings before his first official game as Bagan manager the Spaniard said, “I feel comfortable with the club, with the officials and with the supporters. We are training well and rehearsing the tactics very good. Tomorrow we start a national competition. I think we’re ready and we are very happy that we are playing in two competitions in the following months. I hope we do well in both the competitions.”

Bilal Khan ( Team Manager, Mohammedan SC)

Mohammedan Sporting have announced their left-back Kamran Farooque as their new captain for next season. In Subrata Bhattacharya’s absence, the defender explained his side’s feelings heading into the game saying, “We have our match tomorrow, but we have done a lot of preparation for this. We are practicing hard for the last two months. He has done a great lot for our practice, but we need to perform well tomorrow.”

“They are great players because of their experience in playing in I-League and top tournaments. Our team unity is very strong and the senior players help us a lot,” he added on captaining the side.

Furthermore, he also explained on his side’s preparation and how they’re anticipating the Mariners to perform. He explained, “We don’t know how they’re preparing as this is the season’s first match. Both the teams don’t know about each other. Even they know how we’ll be playing. We’ve tried a lot of formations in training ourselves and we don’t care what formation they play. We have confidence in ourselves to win the game.”

Mohammedan’s team manager Bilal Khan was asked about how difficult it’ll be to defeat the strong Mohun Bagan next season, but showed no signs of being daunted. He said, “In 2017 we defeated Mohun Bagan. Last year we led 1-0, but then lost the game 2-1. There is no small or big side in the ground. Whoever plays the best and fights the hardest will win the game.”

Predicted Lineups

Mohun Bagan: Shilton (GK), Ashutosh, Sukhdev, Morante, Dhanachandra, Gonzalez, Imran, D’Silva, Jesuraj, Salva, Naorem.

Mohammedan Sporting: Subham (GK), Mondal, Sadhu, Nurain, Farooque(C), Tirthankar, Satyam, Musa, Prosenjit, Amrul, Kouassi.

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Telecast

The game will take place on 2nd August at the Salt Lake Stadium at 6 PM. The match will be streamed live on the Adda Times app, which is available on Google Playstore and Apple Store.