Guwahati: The NorthEast United Football Club (NEUFC) will take on Mohun Bagan Super Giant in the grand finale of the 133rd edition of Durand Cup to be played at the Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan (VYBK) in Kolkata on Saturday (August 31).
While Mohun Bagan Super Giant will aim for a record 18 titles, the Highlanders will look to land their first big silverware in the summit clash.
Earlier in the day, Mohun Bagan Super Giant defeated Bengaluru FC 4-3 on penalty shoot-out in the second semi-final played at the VYBK to storm into the finals. The two top sides were locked 2-2 after regulation time with the Mariners coming back from two goals down to force a penalty shootout to decide the winner.
Sunil Chhetri converted from the spot to give the Blues an early lead and young Vinith Venkatesh doubled the lead early in the second half. The home side came back with a Dimitri Petratos penalty of their own and an Anuruddh Thapa stunner in the end stages. Vishal Kaith then turned hero for the Maroon and Green brigade yet again, effecting two saves in the tie-breaker.
The thrilling semi-final was also a battle of Spanish tacticians. While the Mariners’ coach Jose Molina Jimenez effected as many as six changes to the quarter-final starting line-up, Bengaluru’s Gerard Zaragoza gave talisman Sunil Chhetri a start, and also bringing in Vinith Venkatesh in midfield.
Siva Sakthi and Shivaldo Singh started on the bench for the Blues. Both teams looked to have fielded their best eleven for the big game. There was trademark Liston Colaco snapshot from distance early and Chhetri was through on the Bagan goal early, but made a hash after being one-on-one with Kaith.
While Bagan dominated the attacks in the half, the goal came quite against the run of play. Vinith Venkatesh, who in general put in a good shift on the day, justifying his coach’s decision to start him, smartly found his way through Liston back helping in defence and was then adjudged to have been brought down by him inside the box. Chhetri converted with ease.
The home side was stunned and tried to get back immediately creating three chances in quick succession in the dying stages of the half with both Liston and Alberto striking the woodwork. The pressure, however, was not enough to bring them back into the game.
Vinith doubled the lead minutes after resumption when an innocuous back pass by Apuia saw the ball fall ahead of Peryra Diaz who crossed it for an onrushing Vinith to slot it into an empty net.
Molina had introduced Ashish Rai and Greg Stewart to bring in more impetus and on the hour mark, Stewart headed out from handshaking distance and the Mariners could sense that they were getting closer to pulling one back.
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They did as an Apuia grounder found Manvir in the centre of the box and he was brought down on the turn by Rahul Bheke as the referee pointed to the spot for a second time in the game. Dimi Petratos made no mistake.
A Mendez header brought-off a great reflex save from Kaith as the game reached expected heights. Soon enough the Mariners equalised.
Liston, with one of his penetrating runs down the left, won the corner which Petratos floated towards the far post. Thapa was first to pounce on the second ball and swivelled a crisp right-footer through the traffic and into the Bengaluru right side-netting. It was one of the goals of the tournament given the control, distance, placement and technique.
The game went into a penalty shoot-out and Bagan converted the first four as Halicharan Narzary’s fourth was saved by Kaith’s trailing leg. The Stewart’s kick was brilliantly and crucially saved by Gurpreet but Kaith managed to stop Jovanovic’s effort to send the home fans into delirium.