Edmund Lalrindika scored a first-half hat-trick as East Bengal ran riot early in the match and then efficiently shut up shop in the second half to beat their arch-rivals Mohun Bagan SG 4-1 in the final of the 2026 Durand Cup on Sunday. East Bengal have thus won the Durand Cup for the 17th time, equalling Mohun Bagan’s record as the most succesfull team in the 139-year history of the tournament.

Bipin Singh started the scoring for East Bengal in the 10th minute. Edmund scored just two minutes later and then scored again in the 22nd minute to leave Bagan trailing 3-0. Manvir Singh got one back for Bagan right after the drinks break in the 33rd minute but Edmund then restored East Bengal’s three-goal lead in the 44th minute.

This was the second time that these two sides were meeting in this year’s Durand Cup, with the first Kolkata Derby coming with then opening match of the tournament. At the time, both sides were playing their respective first competitive games under their new managers, Panagiotis Dilmperis for Bagan and Antonio Lopez Habas for East Bengal. They were yet to show the telling signs that could be seen in past teams that were managed by the pair, with one of those being Bagan themselves for Habas.

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That wasn’t the case on Sunday in the final. As tournament wore on, Bagan showed the willingness to hold on to the ball and pass their way over the oppositions, something that Dilmperis prefers and that is what they had done. East Bengal, on the other hand, were happy to sit in a low block and hit sides on the counter, a trademark of teams managed by Habas.

At the Salt Lake Stadium on Sunday, it was the latter that won out very early on in the match and Bagan could find no way to make a comeback, particularly in the second half. End-of-match numbers show that Bagan had the ball for 66 percent of the match, completed 467 passes to East Bengal’s 248, took 19 shots, with seven on target as opposed to East Bengal’s 11 and six. They got six corners, East Bengal had just one.

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