Explained: How did Mumbai City FC shattered Mohun Bagan's treble dreams

In India, finals are always fiery. And when two of India's best football clubs vie for supremacy in a do-or-die game at the hallowed grail of Kolkata, the outcome is never going to be disappointing.

The Indian Super League season 10's final, therefore, was no exception.

And with a diverse set of narratives setting the tone, the scene was set for yet another potential ISL classic - the fourth installment of Mohun Bagan SG v Mumbai City FC.

A change in personnel

Habas made two changes to the that had previously beaten Mumbai City FC - Jason Cummings came in for the suspended Armando Sadiku and Deepak Tangri replaced Abishek Suryavanshi in the line-up.

Meanwhile, Petr altered his cards as well.

A foreign center-back pairing of Tiri and Krouma was played even as Bheke moved to right-back and Mehtab Singh filled in at left-back for the injured Akash Mishra.

Apuia took the lone pivot role, replacing the suspended van Nieff with Jayesh Rane coming into the line-up. And Vikram Partap Singh came in for Bipin on the left flank.

A telling 'press'

As most finals do, the game kicked-off with an intense but cagey atmosphere. Both sides seemed to be testing the waters, but just about.

Mumbai City FC wanted to keep the ball, and Mohun Bagan wanted their opponents to have the ball, in the hope that they get to breakout wide through Manvir or Liston.

This, interestingly, was a good idea, considering the fact that both Manvir and Liston are some of India's best while in transition. But, the execution from the Kolkata side was lackluster. Moreover, the Mumbai outfit was much more on-point in all phases of the game.

Yet, it wasn't like the shield-deciding game.

Bagan were not comfortable with the ball at all, lest Mumbai City FC even let them. Kratky's side spurred on, pressing Mohun Bagan's 3-man back-line high, often forcing the ball wide and eventually long into hopefully someone in maroon and green.

But, without Sadiku there and Tiri and Krouma always on their toes for any such duels, Bagan rarely got a sniff. On the rare occasions they did, such as in the 12th-minute when Anwar found Thapa in behind with a long ball down the right channel, Mumbai City FC cut off the incoming cross.

With both Manvir and Liston high up-field, the onus was on the Mohun Bagan back-line to supply them, as Mumbai City's high press always were first to any ball in midfield. The central channel was a no-go for the home side and the back-line's hopeful long balls proved hopeless often.

As a consequence, the Islanders grabbed the reigns at the Salt Lake.

They had the ball, they had the momentum, they created the chances but failed to score.

They even flirted with the post and the crossbar, but the net was to elude them. It just felt like nobody wanted to concede but eventually someone had to.

And in football's true villainous, anti-climatic fashion, the ever-dominant was felled by a goal from thin air.

A 35-yard scorcher from Petratos, which seemed more like a hit-and-hope, was parried by Mumbai's keeper Lachenpa, in what could not have been a more perfect assist for Jason Cummings who pounced on it in true poachers' instinct and lobbed the Islanders' keeper to further aggravate his misery.

Mumbai City FC did everything right, except for that one save — and it cost them. As the teams took a breather at half-time, Mohun Bagan were 45-minutes away from a domestic treble.

The turning point

Just like the first-half, the second kicked-off in similar fashion with the sole difference being the lead that the Mariners had to protect.

Hence, as the game demanded, Mumbai City FC switched gears in attack while their opponents sat back further in a 5-3 block and absorbed the pressure.

Resistance creates pressure and sustained pressure often breaks the resistance.

In this game, that came in the 52nd minute. Mohun Bagan's set-up was compact than ever, forcing the initiative onto Petr Kratky's men to break them if they could. And in reply, Alberto Noguera said 'they can'.

On level-terms again

An exquisite pass from just whiskers behind the half-way line found an cunning blind-side run by Pereyra Diaz, who outfoxed Anwar Ali. All Diaz needed was a chance, and he took it.

A shot on goal and just like that the game was back on level-terms.

Even though it was Mumbai City FC who scored, Mohun Bagan seemed to the ones with an impetus following the kick-off.

For probably the first time since the opening 5-minutes of the game, Bagan managed to sustain possession, and mounted pressure onto Mumbai's back-line by enforcing their wingers into one-on-one situations against the opposing full-backs - especially through the combination plays by Subhashish, Thapa and Liston.

Liston tried all he could, but Rahul Bheke (and Lallianzuala Chhangte) knew better. Liston, meanwhile, had a horrid time, completing just 1/6 attempted dribbles.

But even that spurt was short-lived.

The Islanders slowly got control of the rudder and the game ebbed away in their direction. Soon, substitutes came in for both sides with Sahal replacing Thapa as a more natural attacking-midfielder for Bagan while Bipin Singh and Jakub Vojtus came in for an injured Noguera and a depleted Pereyra Diaz for Mumbai City FC.

Jayesh Rane was taken off for Vinit Rai as well. Mumbai City FC made all-three of their changes before the 80-minute mark.

Goals change games, but coaches can't score and that's why they get to do substitutions. And just a minute after the final Mumbai City FC change, they scored, through who else but Bipin Singh.

It was a game made on the Islander's bench.

Starting with Vinit Rai's incisive, line-breaking pass to find Vikram in space on the right hand side, followed by his precise cut-back to Chhangte on the edge of the box, leading to a shot that ricocheted off Yuste into the path off Vojtus who misled Kaith into thinking it was a shot, while sneakingly sliding it back to Bipin, open in front of goal.

What followed was a moment of madness, that could have easily been catastrophic but ended in ecstasy. Bipin's shot, an erroneous mistimed kick, found its way past Subhashish Bose and into the back of the net.

Bipin had scored against Mohun Bagan in a final yet again, and it was likely to be yet another title winner.

If Bagan were seemingly desperate at 1-1, they were at peak desperation at 2-1.

Their attacking principle was now to get the ball into the Mumbai City FC's box at any cost. But in doing so they continued to play into their opponent's trap of enforced long balls, which made it easier for the sky-blues.

Mumbai City's sustained high press continually drew errors from their opponents. And but for their own fumbles, 3-1 was a certainty.

At this stage, Mohun Bagan perhaps knew that they had lost the plot.

There was no pressure on the ball, no intensity at all and Mumbai City FC all but rolled in a third.

Last years cup-winners took the shield while the previous shield-winners pocketed the cup this time. And Peter Kratky was to walk away with his first ever silverware and in the process, deny Mohun Bagan a treble.