Mohammedan Sporting Club will end their Indian Super League 2025-26 campaign against NorthEast United FC in Guwahati on Tuesday, a final match that comes days after their relegation was sealed by a 0-4 loss to Mumbai City FC in Kolkata.
That defeat made Mohammedan the first team to go down from the league, leaving them bottom of the standings with three points from 12 matches and still without a win. They have scored seven goals and conceded 30, numbers that tell the story of a season in which the newly promoted side struggled to turn effort into results.
NorthEast United arrive in 10th place with 13 points from 12 matches, having managed three wins, four draws and five defeats. The Guwahati club began the Indian football season by successfully defending the Durand Cup title, but their league form has been uneven and they now finish a campaign in which they have scored 12 goals and conceded 15.
The two sides know each other well. Their last meeting at the same venue in January 2025 ended goalless, while the reverse fixture in Kolkata went NorthEast United’s way 1-0 after Alaaeddine Ajaraie struck the winner. Mohammedan’s rise to this level came only after they won the 2023-24 I-League title and earned promotion, making this first top-flight season a hard lesson in the gap between ambition and survival.
Mohammedan coach Mehrajuddin Wadoo kept the message simple before the final whistle of the season. He told his players to give their best and said they had trained hard despite limited resources, adding that he expected them to finish the league by giving everything. NorthEast United coach Juan Pedro Benali, meanwhile, warned against complacency, saying the last game is the one people remember and urging his side to stay humble, fight and run, because Mohammedans have nothing to lose while his team must protect its pride and honour.
There is still one more point hanging over Mohammedan’s season: the club will compete in the 2026-27 Indian Football League campaign, so Tuesday is not an ending so much as a marker of where the rebuild begins. For a team that spent the entire season with an all-Indian squad, the final match in Guwahati is less about the table now than about whether the players can leave with something cleaner than the numbers suggest.
Rochharzela said the match could give younger players a chance to show how much it matters, and he hopes NorthEast United can end the season with a smile. For Mohammedan, the target is simpler and sharper: after a year of defeats and a relegation that was sealed in Kolkata, they need one performance that looks like a foundation rather than a footnote.
