At the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium here on Saturday, the Mohun Bagan Super Giants defeated East Bengal SC 1-0 in the Indian Super League (ISL) 2024–25 season, further solidifying their hold on the Kolkata Derby.

In the ISL, Jamie Maclaren scored the quickest goal of the Kolkata Derby, which was sufficient for the defending champions to defeat their bitter rivals. They now lead the table by eight points (35) over Bengaluru FC, who are in second place (27). In their ten ISL Kolkata Derby matches against East Bengal FC, the Mariners have currently won nine of them and drawn one.

Maclaren gave the Mariners the lead in the second minute, giving them a great start to the match. Asish Rai’s long ball found Maclaren in space, surprising the East Bengal FC defense. He easily placed the ball past an oncoming Prabhsukhan Gill after losing his marker after collecting it.

It was East Bengal FC’s time to attack at the sixth minute, and they had two excellent chances to equalize the score via PV Vishnu and Cleiton Silva. However, both players’ efforts were denied since they lacked clinical enough skills. When Maclaren found Manvir Singh with a telling cross in the twenty-first minute, the Mariners almost doubled their advantage. But the whole goal was discovered gaping, and the latter’s strike was directly at Gill.

With players like Jeakson Singh, Vishnu, and Cleiton getting on the ball in the final third and causing issues for the Mohun Bagan Super Giant defense, East Bengal FC gained significant momentum as the first half drew to an end. They lacked the clinical skills necessary to close out the first half evenly, however. The Mariners had most of the possession in the second half, which was quite cagey, but they were unable to overcome East Bengal FC’s strong defense.

Oscar Bruzon’s team, on the other hand, aimed to strike the Mariners with their gritted counterattacks. However, the opening quarter of the second half saw few noteworthy opportunities. When Souvik Chakrabarti knocked down Liston Colaco close to the penalty area in the 64th minute, the game took a sharp turn for the worst. He was given a second yellow card and then sent off.

East Bengal FC was now chasing the game with ten men after falling down by one goal. In an attempt to strengthen the midfield, Bruzon countered by substituting David Lalhlansanga with Naorem Mahesh Singh. Jose Molina changed things up in the 75th minute by substituting Greg Stewart for Jason Cummings. When he released Liston on the left flank, he almost had an instant effect, but Gill stopped his next attempt.

Similar to the first half, East Bengal FC dominated the last 10 minutes of the second half, thus players such Dimitrios Petratos and Deepak Tangri entered the game late in the hopes of ending it.

The Red & Golds maintained their almost flawless record in the match by throwing people forward in the closing minutes of play, but they lacked the talent to penetrate the Mariners’ defense in the final third.