Mohun Bagan Super Giant bounced back from their opening-round defeat with a hard-fought 2-1 win over SC Delhi at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Friday night to register their first win of the 2026/27 ISL season.
Panagiotis Dilmperis’ side lined up in a 4-2-3-1 with Miguel making his first start in Mohun Bagan colors in the ISL, while Tomasz Tchórz set Delhi up in a 5-3-2 with the same starting 11 that suffered a defeat against Bengaluru FC in the opening game.
The hosts struck first in the 23rd minute through Lalrinliana Hnamte and took a 1-0 lead going into the HT break. While the Mariners were looking for a second consecutive defeat, Dilmperis’ words in the dressing room made a difference as they looked like a different team after the restart.
Lee Erwin equalized in the 56th minute, scoring his first game in ISL while Miguel Figueira netted the winner within four minutes. Bagan then had to survive a late push from Delhi that lasted into the sixth minute of stoppage time.
One side moved up the table, and the other is still searching for its first point languishing at the bottom of the table. Here are our three key takeaways from the game.
Lackluster Bagan turned up in second half to get 3 points!
Bagan were second best before the break, but they were relentless afterwards. Rahul Bheke found Erwin inside the box for the equalizer, and Figueira’s goal followed within four minutes for which Apuia got the assist.
The final numbers show how one-sided the game became by looking at Bagan’s 14 shots to Delhi’s 13, out of which 9 of them were on target. However, most of them were recorded in the second half after a lackluster first half. While Dilmperis would have loved to see the reaction from the players, his worry would have been why the team was struggling in the first half to get their act together to get the goal.
Was it a case of the new players getting some time to get used to each other or was it yet another case of the players failing to step-up and dominate, which was the case in the opening game, Dilmperis would want to fix this mentality issue as early as possible.
Hnamte haunts his old club, but Delhi lacks solidity in defense and a clinical touch in attack
It was a storybook moment for Hnamte. The midfielder spent two years with the Mariners and made his former club pay with the opener. It was left center-back Manoj Mohammed, former East Bengal players, who played a brilliant long ball breaching the Mohun Bagan defense to set it up for Hnamte.
Delhi was bright from the start. Juan Peña tested Vishal Kaith in the fourth minute, Hangshing went close from a corner, and Rodriguinho had a long-range effort. Hnamte had the last chance of the night, but he sent it over the bar in the 90+6th minute.
The numbers explain why they left empty-handed. Delhi had 51% of the possession and 13 shots, but only three were on target. They also won just one corner all night. Two games in, they have zero points, a goal difference of -2 and five goals conceded, which leaves them 12th. The attacking intent is encouraging. But Tchórz needs more cutting edge in the final third and a tighter back five before the points start coming.
Not just the attack, the defense has been a concern for Tomasz Tchorz ever since he took over as the head coach. In his 23 games in charge, the club has scored an impressive 43 goals, almost averaging two per game. However, defensively, they have conceded 39, in which ten of them have come in the last three games, which is a worrying stat at the start of the season.
Nine shots on target, two goals: Bagan must be more clinical!
This win should have been more comfortable. Nine shots on target produced just two goals, which means Delhi’s goalkeeper Nora Fernandes kept out seven. Erwin had a couple of good chances before the break, including one that forced a save in the 39th minute and another that narrowly missed the target in first-half stoppage time. Against a more clinical opponent, those misses could have been costly, as displayed in the previous loss against NorthEast United.
Lee Erwin’s left-footed volley in the first half, Liston’s poor effort in the dying minutes that could have sealed the game with a two-goal advantage, and several other mistakes in picking the right passes in the final third forced them to walk a tightrope until the final whistle, holding on to a slender one-goal lead.
Had they converted the easy chances they created in the second half, the match would have been settled much earlier, allowing them to secure the victory with far less stress.
Overall, it was three valuable points for the Mariners and a frustrating night for Delhi. Bagan will need to be cleaner in front of goal, but they showed the resilience a title challenger needs.
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