Edmilson guides EB to cup

The Kolkata heavyweights pocketed Rs.12 lakh for the win, while runner-up Mahindra United had to be content with Rs. 7 lakhs.

Mahindra were not helped by the fact that Sunil Kumar, who missed the last match after seeing two yellow cards, saw two more today and left his team with 10 men for more than half of the game.

Edmilson had missed the semi-final victory over Mohun Bagan due to injury but his return gave the red and gold brigade the cutting edge which turned out to be the difference between the sides today Mahindra missed the energy of N P Pradeep and would be disappointed that Steven Dias and Ajayan Nair were nowhere near their best.

A largely insipid first half came to life towards the end with three goals, two of them through penalties, and a red card in 12 minutes.

Edmilson was brought down inside the Mahindra penalty area by Sunil Kumar, which prompted referee K Sankar to point to the dreaded spot. The Brazilian made no mistake to put East Bengal in lead.

When the Brazilian doubled East Bengal’s lead soon, it seemed to be all over for the team from Mumbai.

He ran on to a beautiful through ball from Jayanta Sen and chipped it over an advancing Sandip Nandy.

However, Mahindra were given a lifeline just before half time when Mehrajuddin Wadoo tripped Congolese Minga Edson Dico inside the East Bengal box. Local boy Manjit Singh hit the resultant penalty in to the roof of the net past Subrata Paul.

The second half was a keenly contested affair. Mahindra pushed more and more players forward and gaps began to appear in their defence. Nandy was called upon on more than one occasion to keep his team in the game.