Just as it was in the tournament opener, arch-rivals East Bengal and Mohun Bagan Super Giant will face off again in the ongoing Durand Cup, this time in the final on Sunday.
Like East Bengal, Bagan too rode on the shootout to book a final berth, beating last year’s champions NorthEast United FC 4-3 in Thursday’s semi-final in Shillong, after the regulation time ended goalless.
Goalkeeper Vishal Kaith turned out to be the hero for Bagan, pulling off two crucial saves in the shootout to send his team into the final.
After both teams had converted their first three shots, the shootout remained balanced. Thereafter, Robin Yadav stepped up to take NorthEast’s fourth kick, but his effort was brilliantly saved by Kaith.
Jamie Maclaren then calmly converted to put Bagan ahead before Kaith produced another outstanding save to deny Parthib Gogoi, which confirmed Bagan’s place in Sunday’s decider and a rematch with East Bengal.
Earlier, NorthEast head coach Juan Pedro Benali made two changes, bringing in defenders Soraisham Dinesh Singh and Pramveer Singh to the starting line-up in place of Asheer Akhtar and Macarton Louis Nickson.
His Bagan counterpart Panagiotis Dilmperis also made as many changes to the Bagan starting XI with Samir Zeljkovic in midfield in place of Anirudh Thapa and Kiyan Nassiri upfront replacing Dejan Drazic.
Both sides struggled to establish control in midfield during the opening 20 minutes, with the wet conditions making it difficult to build sustained moves.
Both teams thus frequently opted for long balls over the defensive line in an attempt to create attacking opportunities.
The first shot on target came midway through the first half when Liston Colaco’s free-kick forced an excellent save from NorthEast goalkeeper Gurmeet Singh. Moments later, Kiyan opted to shoot from a tight angle rather than looking for his teammates inside the box, and his effort found the side-netting.