Durand Cup 2023: East Bengal defeat NorthEast United to qualify for final

East Bengal reached the Durand Cup final, defeating NorthEast United FC 5-3 on penalties in the first semi-final, after the match ended 2-2 at the end of 90 minutes of regulation time.

After stunning the home-side at Kolkata’s Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan with two strikes on either side of each half, the red and golds struck late in the game and then again in added time to take the game to penalties.

Parthib Gogoi missed his penalty, despite getting two bites of the cherry, as EEB scored all five to make yet another Cup final.

The 16-time winners now await the winners of the second semi-final between Mohun Bagan Super Giant and FC Goa on Thursday, to know who meets them in the final on September 3.

The red and golds’ Carles Cuadrat began with Jordan Elsey, Mandar Rao Desai, Chungnunga and Harmanjot Khabra manning the defense and Jose Pardo and Nishu Kumar playing in the hole between defence and midfield. He made two key changes to his quarter-final 11, including Jose Pardo and Mandar in place of Borja and Souvik Chakrabarti, which he would have to reverse later as things got hot in the second-half.

Cuadrat’s Spanish countryman Juan Benali on the other hand made as many as...

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