Jamshedpur FC made it two wins out of two in the 2025 Durand Cup tournament, courtesy a solid 1-0 win over Indian Army FC at the JRD Tata Sports Complex on Tuesday (July 29).
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After their five-goal thriller in the opening fixture that they won 3-2 against Nepal Army last week, the fixture against Indian Army was more of an attritional battle with Sanan Mohammed's goal in the 52nd minute being the difference between the two sides in the end. With six points from two games, Jamshedpur FC have one foot in the knockout stages already.
It was Indian Army who started well in this fixture, dominating the ball in the first half and also creating the better chances without converting any of them. There were two big chances in the first 15 minutes but Indian Army couldn't capitalise on either of them. However, they continued to dictate the tempo of the game and their physicality was something that Jamshedpur FC initially struggled to deal with.
As the game went on, the pace settled and Jamshedpur FC grew into the contest with all their experience. In the first quarter of the match, they used plenty of long balls and long throws with the hope of using their attackers's aerial ability to put Indian Army's defence under pressure but the ploy didn't work. Meanwhile, Indian Army continued to create chances and at the stroke of half-time, almost went ahead, only for Jamshedpur FC goalkeeper Amrit Gope to make a last-ditch save. Gope had a very challenging first half and to his credit, did his job well to ensure that the scores were level going into the break.
While they made a couple of changes at half-time, Jamshedpur's modus operandi in attack remained the same. It finally bore fruit in the 52nd minute as a long throw led to an opportunity that Mohammed put away through an assist from Karthik Choudhary. Once they took the lead, Jamshedpur FC started to control proceedings a lot better although Indian Army still continued to dominate in ball possession. For a game that largely had no high-intense moments, the closing minutes provided a huge dent to Indian Army as their goalkeeper Abdul Kadir was sent off in stoppage time for a challenge on Jayesh Rane outside the box.
Despite being a man down, Indian Army fought till the very end and also had one more big chance going off-target as it hit the crossbar and went over it. Jamshedpur FC were far from their best in both games but importantly, held their composure to notch up wins on each occasion. However, they'll know that the gameplay needs to improve significantly if they are to go deeper into the competition.
