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. Summary First half Mohun Bagan began the game at a brisk pace earning seven corners in the first 25 minutes, but failed to convert any into goal. Chima Okorie and Abdul Khalique frequently swapped positions with Satyajit Chatterjee and Basudeb Mondal picking out their runs with through-passes splitting the defences of East Bengal. East Bengal stood the attacks led by their defender Sammy Omollo who marked Okorie whilst Naushad Moosa worked to minimize the aerial delivery toward the striker. The Bagan players, however, began showing signs of fatigue, as the first half-hour approached. Their defenders, instead of marking Bhaichung Bhutia, attempted to repeatedly trap him offside. He managed to beat the trap that set off a sequence leading to East Bengal's first goal, in the 25th minute. He was deployed slightly towards the flanks with Haque as centre-forward. The Bagan defence made a save at the expense of a corner. Somatai Saiza's kick aimed at Bhutia, bounced off him to hit a Bagan defender and then to an unmarked Haque, who side-volleyed with his left-foot for a goal. The first half thus ended in 1–0 East Bengal's favour. Second half Just a minute into the second half, East Bengal converted another corner kick, again from Saiza's left foot onto Bhutia, who promptly headed it into the bottom right corner of the net taking his team's lead 2–0. Desperate for an equaliser, Bagan began pushing harder, and manifested in the form of an Okorie-goal in the 66th minute. He controlled Mondal's cross, from the right edge of the box, on his chest before volleying it into the net beating East Bengal's goalkeeper to take the scoreline to 1–2 in his team's favour. Exploiting Bagan's poor marking, and positioning of its high line of defence, Bhutia broke the offside trap time and again,