East Bengal Dominates CISF Protectors 8–0 in Durand Cup

The Durand Cup had been waiting for East Bengal to arrive. On a humid Kolkata night at the Kishore Bharati Krirangan, the Indian Super League champion finally did — with an 8–0 demolition of CISF Protectors that felt less like a group-stage fixture and more like a warning shot to the rest of the tournament.

Days after the sting of a derby defeat to Mohun Bagan Super Giant, Antonio Habas’ side answered every question about its temperament with goals. Wave after wave of them.

Vishnu’s night, East Bengal’s release

This was PV Vishnu’s stage. The forward walked off with a hat-trick, but his influence went beyond numbers. From the second minute, when Jesin slipped a pass into the box and Raj Mathur made the first of many saves, Vishnu played like a man determined to rip up the script of a slow, tentative title defence.

He hit the post with an acrobatic attempt in the fourth minute, a bicycle-style effort off an Edmund cross that clattered the woodwork and drew a collective groan from the stands. It set the tone: East Bengal would attack, and keep attacking, until something broke.

CISF Protectors tried to keep a deep line, bodies stacked in a low block, full-backs tucked in, midfielders screening. For 30-odd minutes, it just about held. Mathur pulled off a double save from a free-kick and the rebound. Karamjeet and Bebetto threw themselves in front of crosses. The underdogs looked organised, if increasingly desperate.

The pressure finally told.

In the 38th minute, Edmund drove into the box down the right and cut the ball back with precision. Vishnu, back to goal, improvised. A deft back-heel, the ball guided past Mathur and into the net. The champions were in front, and the dam had cracked.

Deep into first-half stoppage time, East Bengal sliced through again. Dani Ramirez drew both Mathur and defender MD Khalid towards him with a clever run and pass, slipping the ball sideways to Jeakson Singh. The India midfielder, unmarked, simply rolled it in for 3–0 at 45+3. Between those two strikes, an own goal had already widened the gap, leaving CISF chasing shadows by the interval.

At half-time, the contest was effectively over. The statement, though, was only half-written.

Overhead kicks, counterattacks and a collapse

Any faint hope of CISF regrouping died within minutes of the restart.

In the 47th minute, left-back Sandip Mandi swung in a cross from the flank. Vishnu met it with an audacious overhead kick, steering the ball into the corner. An exhibition finish, his second of the night, and a snapshot of the gulf between the ISL champion and a side already beaten twice in the group.

From there, East Bengal started to toy with its opponent. Hardik tried his luck from distance. Shots skimmed past the post. The tempo dipped only because the scoreline kept climbing.

Habas turned to his bench on 59 minutes, sending on Bipin Singh and Rohit Kumar for Dani and Rashid. It did not slow the onslaught. It sharpened it.

On 64 minutes, a CISF defensive lapse was punished ruthlessly. East Bengal broke in transition, catching the Protectors cold. A cross from the right found Bipin, who arrived in the box with perfect timing and tucked his finish away for 5–0. The champions were now scoring at will.

Soon after, the woodwork and Mathur combined to keep the margin from turning farcical even earlier. Lalchungnunga’s strike clipped the post after a touch from the goalkeeper, Jesin was denied from close range, and Edmund smashed another effort off the frame of the goal. CISF hung on by inches, not structure.

The resistance did not last.

Jesin joins the party, Vishnu completes his hat-trick

Jesin had been busy all evening without reward — runs into the channels, crosses from the left, half-chances snatched away by last-ditch defending. In the 70th minute, he finally cashed in.

Released down the right by a through ball, he drove into the box, shaped his body and drilled a low shot past Mathur. East Bengal 6–0 CISF. The scoreline now matched the pattern of the game.

CISF heads dropped. The second hydration break brought no respite, only a pause before the final blows.

In the 76th minute, Jesin struck again, beating Mathur once more to deepen the humiliation. Two minutes later, the move that sealed the night’s narrative: Bipin, now buzzing down the flank, whipped in another cross. Vishnu arrived to steer it home, completing his hat-trick and stretching the lead to 8–0.

By then, the only question left in the stadium was whether East Bengal could surpass the tournament’s biggest recorded margin of victory — a 9–1 result from 2016, when Dempo beat Real Kashmir. The champions chased a ninth, pushed high, and even in the 90th minute won a corner that Bipin swung in. The final header flew off target.

The record stayed, but the damage was done.

From derby despair to Durand dominance

The final whistle from referee Jehrul Islam ended a long, punishing 90 minutes for CISF Protectors, who never found a way through Phurba Lachenpa and rarely escaped their own half. Their consolation lies only in the fact that it ended at eight.

For East Bengal, this was more than three points. It was a cleansing. After a 1–0 loss to Mohun Bagan SG in the season opener and a goalless start to the Durand Cup, questions had started to swirl around Habas’ reshaped side — now without last season’s No. 10 Miguel, but bolstered by the arrivals of players like Dani and Phurba.

On this night, the answers came in ruthless fashion.

The win lifts East Bengal to second in the group, behind Mohun Bagan on head-to-head but above South United, which it faces next in its final group-stage match. The equation is simple: only the group topper is guaranteed a knockout spot, with the runner-up left to hope results elsewhere fall kindly.

After an 8–0 reminder of what the ISL champion can do when it smells blood, the real question now is whether this was a one-night catharsis — or the start of a Durand Cup charge worthy of its badge.