The second semi-final of the 1997 Indian Federation Cup was played between arch-rivals East Bengal and Mohun Bagan at Salt Lake Stadium, Kolkata on 13 July 1997.

Chima Okorie managed to pull one back for Mohun Bagan in the second half, but Bhutia's twin strikes in four minutes sealed the game for East Bengal.

The derby was a highly anticipated one as it was the semi-final of one of India's hitherto most popular and premier knockout football tournament, and thus drew over 131,000 supporters to the stadium, and was an Asian record for highest attendance at a sporting event.

[7] The coach of East Bengal, Banerjee, had the reputation as a pragmatist and was known for playing easily adaptable football with popular players to win games, much unlike Dutta.

Chima Okorie and Abdul Khalique frequently swapped positions with Satyajit Chatterjee and Basudeb Mondal picking out their runs with through-passes splitting the defences of East Bengal.

East Bengal stood the attacks led by their defender Sammy Omollo who marked Okorie whilst Naushad Moosa worked to minimize the aerial delivery toward the striker.

[12] He controlled Mondal's cross, from the right edge of the box, on his chest before volleying it into the net beating East Bengal's goalkeeper to take the scoreline to 1–2 in his team's favour.

Exploiting Bagan's poor marking, and positioning of its high line of defence, Bhutia broke the offside trap time and again, speeding past his markers.

Haque held on to the ball close to the half line, ran into the Bagan box before passing on for an overlapping Shamsi Reza who crossed over for Bhutia who, in turn, dribbled past a diving defender Ranjan Dey and goalkeeper Dora to find the net's top corner in the 85th minute.

However, the impact this game had had, was described by India Today thus: "A city and a sport rediscovered each other and Calcutta and soccer were locked again in a bizarre tango" and added, "It was the '60s and '70s revisited: it was mayhem, it was stirring.

[13] Speaking of the game, Bhutia said, "It was a great feeling to score a hat-trick on such a big occasion and it's true that it gave me a lot of media attention but I had to work even harder after that.

"[14] Despite the failure of his 'diamond' formation in the game, Dutta, however, went on with it, and was able to exact "revenge" in a replay of the match within a month, when his team beat East Bengal 1–0 at the final of the Calcutta Football League.