Churchill clinch Durand via shootout

Earlier Prayag United played their trademark game of balancing impenetrable defence with sharp counterattacks. Churchill themselves stayed in a shell and looked content with barricading their own defence. If any team were to score in this ultra defensive set up it was Prayag who had precisely one chance. They earned a corner in the very first minute and corner specialist Lukram James Singh who scored a zero angle goal against Pune FC in the semis,again curled a ball that found Denson Devadass head and ricocheted off the cross bar.

Churchill too had a modicum of a chance,which came in the 9th minute. Opara Ndubuisi snatched the ball amidst some loose defence from Prayag and from the right charged in to the box. But as soon as he made space for him to aim for the goal,a huge wall of Prayag players stood in front and his attempt came to naught. To some extent Churchills defensive format was justified in that they were without regular strikers in Roberto Silva and Henry Arnaud. The latter was carded red and watched his team from the stands while injury saw Silva benched.

With one side unable and the other side unwilling to score,both only conspired to take the match towards penalty shootouts. And there it was a players error rather than an act of brilliance that gave a side victory.