East Bengal Dominates CISF Protectors 8–0 in Durand Cup

The Durand Cup finally heard East Bengal’s voice this season. It wasn’t a murmur. It was a roar.

Four days after a flat, frustrating loss to Mohun Bagan Super Giant, the Indian Super League champion tore into CISF Protectors with an 8–0 demolition at the Kishore Bharati Krirangan in Kolkata on Friday, a result that ranks among the biggest wins in the history of the tournament.

PV Vishnu walked away with the match ball after a hat-trick. Jesin TK helped himself to a brace. Jeakson Singh and Bipin Singh joined the party, with a CISF own goal completing the rout. The scoreboard felt almost cruel by the end, but it told the story of a night when one side played like champions and the other simply ran out of resistance.

A slow burn turns into a flood

From the first whistle, there was only one team on the front foot. East Bengal, still scoreless in the competition before kick-off, set up camp in CISF’s half and stayed there.

Inside four minutes, Vishnu nearly produced a goal-of-the-tournament contender. Edmund whipped in a cross and Vishnu launched into an acrobatic effort, only to see the ball crash off the post. It was an early warning of what was coming.

Chances came in waves. Edmund and Hardik repeatedly attacked from the flanks, Dani Ramirez pulled strings in midfield, and CISF goalkeeper Raj Mathur found himself under siege. In the 20th minute, Vishnu tested him from distance; Raj palmed it away. Minutes later, a late challenge from Bebetto handed East Bengal a free-kick on the edge of the box, and Raj again kept the scores level, denying Dani.

For a while, CISF’s low block did its job. Karamjeet and Khalid threw themselves at crosses, Raj made a double save on the half-hour mark, and East Bengal’s early dominance had no number next to it. The champions pressed, probed and recycled the ball, but the breakthrough stayed just out of reach.

Then the dam burst.

Vishnu lights the fuse

In the 38th minute, the pressure finally told. East Bengal attacked with a high line, Edmund darting into the box before cutting the ball back. Vishnu, sharp and inventive, met it with a clever back-heel that slipped past Raj and into the net.

Relief swept through the white shirts. The noise inside the stadium shifted. East Bengal had their first goal of the Durand Cup, and they were in no mood to stop at one.

Deep into first-half stoppage time, they struck again. Dani Ramirez drew both Khalid and Raj towards him, waited that extra heartbeat, then slid the ball across to the unmarked Jeakson Singh. The India midfielder needed only a simple tap-in. At 3–0, with an earlier own goal already on the board, the contest looked as good as over by the break.

Overhead artistry and open floodgates

Any hope of a CISF response vanished within minutes of the restart.

In the 47th minute, Sandip Mandi whipped in a cross from the left. Vishnu, full of confidence, launched into an overhead kick and steered the ball into the net. It was audacious, emphatic, and it summed up the gulf between the sides. East Bengal started the second half as if the scoreline still read 0–0.

By now, CISF’s shape had dissolved into survival mode. East Bengal, smelling a historic margin, pushed higher and higher. Hardik went close from distance, his shot whistling just wide. Habas turned to his bench, bringing on Bipin Singh and Rohit Kumar, but the intensity did not drop. If anything, it sharpened.

The fifth arrived in the 64th minute. After Jesin tried his luck from range, another rapid counterattack caught CISF cold. A cross from the right found Bipin, and he calmly tucked it away. Five. The Protectors were no longer just chasing shadows; they were chasing time.

Toying with the opposition

At 5–0, East Bengal began to enjoy themselves.

Lalchungnunga stepped forward from defence and rattled the post with a powerful strike, Raj getting the slightest touch. Seconds later, Jesin saw a shot saved, and Edmund hit the woodwork again. CISF’s back line, which had battled bravely in the first half-hour, now looked drained, the earlier resilience replaced by resignation.

The scoreline already felt brutal, but East Bengal were chasing something more – a statement, a response to that derby defeat, and perhaps a place in the Durand Cup record books. The biggest margin in the competition’s modern history, 9–1, suddenly didn’t seem out of reach.

CISF’s heads dropped as the second-half hydration break ended. Every misplaced pass invited another East Bengal surge. Every clearance felt like a temporary escape.

Jesin joins the feast

The sixth goal came on 70 minutes, and it belonged to a man who had been threatening all evening.

Jesin finally found his finish, timing his run perfectly to latch onto a through ball down the right. One touch to steady himself, another to slide a low shot past Raj. East Bengal 6–0 CISF Protectors, and the striker had the goal his movement deserved.

The home side smelled blood. The crowd sensed a record. CISF, by contrast, were now simply waiting for the whistle.

It did not come soon enough for them.

Two in two minutes, and history in sight

In the 76th minute, Jesin struck again, beating Raj once more to add East Bengal’s seventh. Just as CISF tried to regroup, they were hit immediately from the restart.

Two minutes later, Bipin delivered another teasing cross, and Vishnu arrived to steer it home for his hat-trick and East Bengal’s eighth. The scoreline turned from heavy to humiliating.

By then, the contest had long since turned into an exhibition. East Bengal knocked the ball around with swagger, CISF chased in vain, and the referee’s watch became the visitors’ only ally.

Whistle on a statement night

When Jehrul Islam finally blew for full-time, CISF’s ordeal ended at 8–0. East Bengal’s players walked off with a different kind of weight lifted — the burden of that derby defeat, the questions over their lack of goals in the competition, the need to show that last season’s ISL title had not dulled their edge.

The win does not take them top of the group; the earlier loss to Mohun Bagan SG keeps them second on head-to-head. They move above South United into second place, with one group match left against South United and everything still on the line.

CISF, beaten now in both their games and staring at elimination, still have to face Mohun Bagan SG. For them, the Durand Cup has turned into a harsh lesson.

For East Bengal, though, this was more than three points and a gaudy scoreline. It was a reminder – to their rivals, to the tournament, and perhaps to themselves – that when the champions click, they don’t just win. They overwhelm.