Monday, March 18, 2013

East Bengal sailed into the final of IFA Shield beating mighty rival Mohun Bagan.



 Safehands of East Bengal custodian Gurprees Singh Sandhu guided East Bengal into the final of IFA Shield by beating arch rivals Mohun Bagan in semifinal by tie-breaker 4-2 margin  following an 1 all stalemate in scheduled 90 minutes & followed by extended extra time in a tremendously contested match where both the teams have played their part.
         CS Sabeeth put Mohun Bagan ahead in the 46th minute, substituted Andrew Borisich leveled it for East Bengal only 2 minutes to remain, none of them manage to make a mark in added extra time which guided the match towards tie-breaker shoot out where East Bengal netted 4 while Mohun Bagan managed only 2.
         The match started in an electrifying atmosphere under floodlight, almost 70,000 people attended in the ground to cheer for their side. A 5 minutes drizzle just before the kick off reduced the humidity also, made environment suitable for good football.
        Both the team started in cautious fashion, started to measure each other, in between East Bengal got two clear chances within 10 minutes of the game, Mehtab & Ralte had taken the control of the midfield, Chhidi created couple of chances which they failed to convert.
              Mohun Bagan also started to counter after 30 minutes courtesy Odafa who placed a million dollar pass for CS Sabeeth in the dying moments of the first half which Sabeeth failed to convert form one is to one, first half ended in a goalless stalemate.
           Mohun Bagan got their goal in the very first minute just after the kick off of second half, Nirmal Chhetri released a long ball to Odafa who trapped it in his chest & guided to unmarked Sabeeth who didn’t have any way apart from placing that ball inside the opponent net which put Mohun Bagan 1-0 ahead.
          It looked Mohun Bagan side complete got inspired by that goal, started to play a different kind of football by vanishing the opponents out from the pitch, that time East Bengal lost entire control of the match, but only due to the lack of scoring abilities of Sabeeth, Mohun Bagan failed to score few more goals on that time.  
          James Morgan of East Bengal introduced newly recruited Australian, Andrew Borisich in the place of Penn Orji & Bhasum in the place of Robin Singh in the 70th minute of the game which actually became the gamechanger move by East Bengal.
           In the other hand Karim Bencharifa had introduced Manish Bhargab & Tolgay in the place of Denson Devdas & Quinton Jacobs which actually shut the co-ordination between midfield & forwardline of Mohun Bagan.
         East Bengal had utilized the entire advantage courtesy Andrew Borisich who restored the parity for the red & gold side by firing the ball inside the net from top of the box following an excellent pass from right side by Sanju Pradhan only 2 minutes to remain in the scheduled time. The game ended in 1 all stalemate after 90 minutes.
           Most of the parts of extra time was dominated by East Bengal but failed to seal the deal while East Bengal custodian Gurpreet Singh Sandhu made an excellent full stretched diving save of a free-kick taken by Odafa from 45 yards away which guided the match into the tie-breaker.
            Chiddi scored the first for East Bengal while Odafa only found the safe hands of the East Bengal custodian Gurpreet which actually demoralized the followers. Barisich netted the second also for East Bengal while Nirmal Chhetri ballooned away the ball only for Mohun Bagan which almost secured the destiny on East Bengal’s behalf. Sanju & Baljit also scored while Naoba made a mess for East Bengal. On the other hand Jewel & Aibor converted their stroke into the net for Mohun Bagan.
          Now East Bengal will face another Kolkata giant Prayag United in the final of IFA Shield at the same ground on 19th March.
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