Mohun Bagan Super Giant crowned ISL league champions

Mohun Bagan Super Giant were crowned the Indian Super League (ISL) league winners after they beat Mumbai City FC 2-1 at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata on Monday.

Liston Colaco and Jason Cummings scored the goals for Mohun Bagan, while Lallianzuala Chhangte scored the lone goal for Mumbai City FC.

Mohun Bagan Super Giant finished their league engagements with 48 points from 22 matches, edging past Mumbai City FC (47) by a solitary point. The focus now moves to the play-offs, with Mohun Bagan Super Giant, Mumbai City FC, FC Goa, Odisha FC, Kerala Blasters FC, and Chennaiyin FC advancing to the knock outs.

While Mohun Bagan and Mumbai City FC have qualified for the semi-finals, the remaining four teams will play one knockout match each to join the top two in the semi-finals.

Liston opened the floodgates with his thunderous, trademark effort from the left side of the box in the 28th minute of the match. Minutes before he scored the first goal, he missed nodding home a cross by Anirudh Thapa by a whisker. The latter received the ball outside the box on the right flank and sneaked in a smart delivery for Liston on the far post. The attacker headed for the ball, but it failed to hit the target.

However, just near the half-hour mark, his efforts bore fruit thanks to a timely assist by Dimitrios Petratos, whose pass was received, held on, and hammered onto the top right corner effortlessly by the winger.

Mumbai City FC emerged as the more dominant of the two sides in the second half though, holding possession for a reasonable period and knocking on the doors of the Mohun Bagan Super Giant backline.

Petratos and Jason Cummings then embarked on a lethal counter-attacking move before Petratos supplied the ball to Cummings on the right flank. The striker could have opted to play a one-two, but he instead trusted his scoring instincts to take on Mumbai City FC goalkeeper Phurba Lachenpa from a slightly challenging angle before netting the ball to double the lead of Mohun Bagan.

Mumbai City FC were desperate to crawl their way back into the proceedings, and they ended up overcrowding the Mohun Bagan Super Giant box. Chhangte picked a short delivery given to him by Apuia near the right post and sent it into the net in the 89th minute to reduce the arrears.

But Mohun Bagan kept their cool in the dying minutes of the game to hold onto their one-goal lead and win the ISL 2023-24 league shield.