Durand Cup: Diamond Harbour stun East Bengal, end dream run in semi-final

East Bengal’s Durand Cup dream, fuelled by the high of a Kolkata Derby triumph against Mohun Bagan Super Giants in the quarter-final, came to a crashing halt on August 20. A newly-formed Diamond Harbour FC, playing their debut season in the tournament, scripted the biggest shock of the campaign with a 2-1 win in the semi-final.

It was a night that summed up the old football clich—possession and stats don’t win matches, goals do. East Bengal dominated the ball, pressed with attacking intent, and racked up the numbers, but failed to turn their chances into decisive moments. Diamond Harbour, on the other hand, made theirs count—and in the most poetic fashion, it was familiar faces who handed East Bengal the heartbreak.

The script flips in Kolkata

For much of the evening, the contest followed a predictable script: East Bengal in full flow, probing, with Dimitrios Diamantakos buzzing around the box after his derby-winning brace last week. The Red and Gold fans, finally accustomed to a side that seemed to have shed its past lack of attacking conviction, found themselves at ease—until decisiveness, or rather the lack of it, came back to haunt them.

The semi-final flipped in the 66th minute when Mikel Kortazar Idialkez, pouncing on a rebound, produced an acrobatic finish to put Diamond Harbour 1-0 up. The stunned Salt Lake crowd barely had a moment to digest the shock before Anwar Ali produced a thunderbolt from range in the very next minute to restore parity.

It felt like the game was swinging back East Bengal’s way. But football thrives on twists, and this tie had one more.

Old faces, new heartbreaks

Diamond Harbour, only months into existence, had built their game on discipline. Their goalkeeper Mirshad Michu—ironically once East Bengal’s reserve and a part of NorthEast United’s Durand Cup-winning squad last season—stood tall as their last line of defence. After Ali’s equaliser, he returned to his inspired best, denying East Bengal again and again.

Mohammed Rashid, the new fan-favourite in red and gold, tried to spark life with long-range attempts but lacked his usual spark. Miguel Figueira danced, shimmied, even rattled the crossbar, yet the breakthrough wouldn’t come.

And then came the cruellest dagger of all—delivered by another old flame. Joby Justin, once East Bengal’s rising star but long since faded from their plans, seized his moment. His late strike sealed the 2-1 win for Diamond Harbour, knocking his former club out and etching his new side’s name into Durand Cup folklore.

For East Bengal, the run that had promised revival, that had sent their fans into dreamland after the derby win, ended in the bitterest of fashions. For Diamond Harbour, it was history made—a debut campaign already gilded with the scalp of Kolkata’s oldest giant.