East Bengal ended their 22-year-old title drought by winning the Indian Super League for the first time after clinching a hard-fought 2-1 win over Inter Kashi at the Kishore Bharati Krirangan on Thursday.
Arch-rivals Mohun Bagan were another contender for the title heading into the decisive final round of fixtures, who rallied to beat Sporting Club Delhi 2-1 at Yuba Bharati Krirangan.
Mumbai FC defeated Punjab FC 2-0, while Odisha FC and Jamshedpur FC played out a dull goalless draw. Meanwhile, East Bengal had to fight hard for their win after Inter Kashi took an early lead in the 15th minute through Alfred’s superb first-time strike.
East Bengal missed several chances before half-time but finally got the equaliser in the 50th minute through striker Youssef Ezzejjari, who also finished as the league’s top scorer with 11 goals in 13 matches to win the Golden Boot. Mohammed Rashid then scored in the 73rd minute to complete a brilliant comeback for the Kolkata giants.
This was East Bengal’s first top-flight domestic league title since the 2003-04 National Football League season under late coach Subhash Bhowmick. Ezzejjari, the 33-year-old striker born in Spain who represented Morocco at youth level, made up for the chances he had missed earlier in the match.
Going into the final round, East Bengal and Mohun Bagan were tied on 23 points, but East Bengal had the advantage because of their better goal difference of +18 compared to Mohun Bagan’s +13.
Mumbai City FC, Punjab FC and Jamshedpur FC also still had a mathematical chance of winning the title before the final matches. This season, the ISL followed a shorter single-leg league format with 13 matches and no playoffs, meaning the team finishing on top of the table would directly become champions.
