It was a day of shock results in the quarterfinal stage of Durand Cup 2025 with two of the fancied teams bowing out of the competition without making the semifinal. Mohun Bagan and Jamshedpur FC, two strong contenders for the title were upstaged in their respective quarterfinal encounters on Sunday (August 17). Diamond Harbour FC upstaged their more touted ISL opponents with a 2-0 win, a result that nobody really saw coming.
Coming to the Kolkata derby, it is not unusual for the underdog side to win the contest in such marquee clashes but Mohun Bagan were expected to come out on top in this contest. Instead, their arch-rivals upstaged them to a memorable 2-1 win, courtesy a brace from Dimitrios Diamantakos who scored in the 38th and 50th minute to put East Bengal on the front foot. From the outset, Mohun Bagan were taken aback by East Bengal's ultra-aggressive approach and the intent paid dividends towards the back end of the first half. It was, however, a penalty that helped East Bengal to take the lead in the contest. A 1-0 lead at the half-time break was just reward for their intent but they also knew that such a slender lead isn't a guarantee against their fancied rivals.
Therefore, East Bengal began the second half, much like they did in the first, and put pressure on Mohun Bagan. The intensity reaped rewards when Diamantakos once again was there at the right place at the right time, to slot away his second of the evening in the 51st minute of the game. If the first goal stunned them, this certainly hurt Mohun Bagan a lot more and on expected lines, they ramped up the pressure in the next 10-15 minutes. Finally, in the 68th minute, they managed to pull one back, setting it up for a thrilling final quarter of the game. Mohun Bagan threw everything they could at their rivals but East Bengal hung on, even if not always securely and withstood the pressure alongside six minutes of stoppage time to register a memorable win. It was only their second win in the last seven Kolkata Derby games and this being a knockout fixture was the icing on the cake for them.
The first game of the day was undoubtedly the showstealer in terms of shock value. In just the third minute of the game, Diamond Harbour defender Sairuatkima proving to be the surprise hero of the game in what was the first of his two goals. In a scrappy sequence, Sairuatkima was left unmarked in the penalty area and he made Jamshedpur FC pay dearly for that miss. The ISL side were under pressure immediately and were often struggling to combat Diamond Harbour's fast counterattacks and one of them led to the second goal for Diamond Harbour, in the 41st minute of the game. Armed with a shock two-goal lead, Diamond Harbour then rightfully went about protecting the lead and proved to be very hard for Jamshedpur FC to break down. In the end, the rookies managed a win as well as a cleansheet to book their place in the semifinal.
