Dempo bow out in tie-breaker

Dempo bow out in tie-breaker
l Bagan- E Bengal Fed Cup finals on Saturday
PTI
CUTTACK, SEPT 30
Thirteen times champions Mohun Bagan sailed into the final of 32nd Federation Cup, beating Dempo SC 6-5 via the tie-breaker to set up a summit clash with traditional rivals East Bengal on October 2. They were trailing 0-1 at the break.
The teams were locked in a 1-1 draw at full time and even extra time of 30 minutes failed to resolve the deadlock.
In a pulsating match at the floodlit Barabati Stadium here, the Goans dished out an attacking brand of soccer from the word go with Nigerian striker Ranti Martins scoring the goal as early as in the second minute of the match.
Bagan struggled to match the class of Dempo and could equalise in the 66th minute when Edeh Chidi converted a spot kick after a foul on him on the line of the box.
After that both teams fought for supremacy and remained 1-1 in the stipulated time taking the match to the extra time which also did not yield any result.
In the tie-breaker, Bagan scored all goals while Dempo’s Kalu N Ogba failed to place the ball as jubilation followed in the Bagan camp.
The heroes of the crucial match for Bagan were their custodians Shilton Paul and Sangram Mukherjee. While Paul thwarted the repeated onslaughts by rival forwards during the stipulated time, Mukherjee neatly collected the ball as Ogba took the shot, thus stopping Dempo from scoring the all-important goal which turned out to be the clincher.
In the tie-breaker, Edeh Chidi, Jose Ramirez Barreto, Snehasis Chakraborty, Gouranga Dutta and Muritala Ali scored for Bagan.
Bagan was found to be a bit complacent while the Goans, spearheaded by Martins and Beto, played more attacking brand of soccer. Knowing it well that the juggernaut of the green-and-maroon brigade centered round their experienced foreign strikers – Ramirez Baretto and Mutritala Ali – the Goans successfully checkmated the duo denying them any supply from the beginning.
Chidi, who made it to the field as a substitute in the seventh minute into the second half, scored the equaliser.
Dempo thus failed to take revenge of their 1-0 loss in 2008 despite enjoying more ball possession.
Bagan had thrashed Salgaocar SC to reach the semis for the fifth straight edition, riding on hat-tricks by Brazillian striker Jose Baretto and Nigerian forward Muritala Ali.
Dempo had won the domestic league four times in last six years but managed to lift the Federation Cup only once in 2004 beating Bagan 2-0. But in 2008 Bagan turned the table on Dempo with the 1-0 win in the final.
Bagan had earlier entered into the final 17 times, registering 13 wins and four times runners up.