page_title: East Bengal 4–1 Mohun Bagan
section_title: Match
hierarchical_section_title: East Bengal 4–1 Mohun Bagan / Match
caption_attribution_description: English: Bhaichung Bhutia at the NDTV Marks for Sports event
context_page_description: The second semi-final of the 1997 Indian Federation Cup was played between arch-rivals East Bengal and Mohun Bagan at Salt Lake Stadium, Kolkata on 13 July 1997. Called the Kolkata Derby, the match was won by East Bengal 4–1 courtesy of a hat-trick, first ever in the derby's history, from Bhaichung Bhutia. Nazim-ul-Haque opened the scoring early on for East Bengal before Bhutia's goal took the lead to 2–0. Chima Okorie managed to pull one back for Mohun Bagan in the second half, but Bhutia's twin strikes in four minutes sealed the game for East Bengal.
  The match holds significance on many accounts. The coaches of the two teams, Amal Dutta and Pradip Kumar Banerjee, were the two most respected coaches in the country, with massive success for over two decades with their respective clubs and against each other, by virtue of multiple wins at IFA Shield, Durand Cup and Calcutta Football League behind them. The derby was a highly anticipated one as it was the semi-final of one of India's hitherto most popular and premier knockout football tournament, and thus drew over 131,000 supporters to the stadium, and was an Asian record for highest attendance at a sporting event.
context_section_description: A record crowd of 131,781 had turned up for the game, over and above the hitherto official seating capacity of 120,000. On the afternoon marked by hot and humid weather conditions, Banerjee made two tactical changes just before the game began. He replaced the defenders, veteran Ilyas Pasha and rookie Falguni Dutta, with the energetic pair of Dulal Biswas and Amitava Chanda. In what was a calculated gamble, he played Haggi Azande Abulista as the goalkeeper, who previously had never played a game of such magnitude. He fielded the 4–4–2 formation to counter Dutta's 3–2–3–2. Another source cites that Dutta employed the 3–4–3 diamond formation.
caption: East Bengal's Bhaichung Bhutia, whose hat-trick helped his team win the match.
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