Bagan hold nerve, move into final

Not often do you see all five penalties being converted in the tie-breaker. But the Bagan players 8212; Barreto, Marco, Lalkamal Bhowmick, PC Lalawmpuia and James Singh were confident and showed precision. For East Bengal, Praveen Kumar, Mehtab Hossain and Jayanta scored. But Sunil Chhetri, of all people, hit straight to goalkeeper Sangram Mukherjee. And that made the difference. The day8217;s win saw Bagan stretch their winning streak against the red-and-golds to seven in the last nine encounters, the other two being draws.

Bagan went into this match as underdogs as their march to the semi-final was a laborious one. They came back from the brink against Air India to qualify for the knock-out stage. The schedule too didn8217;t favour them as they were made to play four matches in six days.

East Bengal, on the other hand, had a smooth sailing with three consecutive wins in the group league stage. They choked when it mattered most.

They started off very well though. They took Bagan by the scruff of the neck in the first half and came very close to scoring at least thrice. But Sangram tonight was almost unbeatable under the bar and Chhetri just couldn8217;t get the better of him. Soumik Dey was guilty of missing a sitter midway into the first half.

Bagan8217;s presence in that half was restricted to a Marcos freekick that fooled everybody, including East Bengal goalie Subrata Paul, and an Ahmed header from a James Singh corner that caught Paul8217;s fingertips before coming off the post. Ahmed was once again unlucky in the 71st minute when his left-footer came off the woodwork.

Bagan had to change their formation quite early in the match after J Anandavasan suffered a cramp and had to be taken off. Bhowmick replaced him, with Rakesh Mashi dropping back to central defence. But the latter failed miserably in his new role, putting extra pressure on Deepak Mondal. Chhetri, Rahim Nabi and Pradhan 8212; the latter had an excellent game 8212; grabbed this opportunity with both hands and East Bengal were shining brightly.

But coach Stanley Rozario made a mistake by retaining a half-fit Yusif Yakubu in the field, which probably helped Bagan wrest the initiative.

Bagan coach Karim Bencherifa was a lot more professional in his approach. He didn8217;t think twice to replace Baichung Bhutia in the extra-time when the star striker injured his hamstring. He also kept his boys ready for the penalty shoot-out.

Bagan will take on Dempo Sports Club of Goa in the final on Sunday.