East Bengal clinch Mohammedan Sporting Platinum Jubilee Cup

KOLKATA - East Bengal lifted the Mohammedan Sporting Platinum Jubilee Cup with a 6-5 victory through the tie-breaker over arch-rivals Mohun Bagan in a final that went down to the wire here Sunday.

The match had to be decided by penalty shootouts after the two sides finished 2-2 at the end of the regulation period and remained locked 3-3 once half-an-hour of extra time got over at the well-attended Yuva Bharati Krirangan.

Sanju Pradhan, Robin Singh and Susanth Mathew scored in succession for East Bengal from the spot kicks, but their colleagues Ravinder and Biswadip Natta failed to convert.

Mohun Bagans opening pair of penalty takers, Souvik Chakraborty and Snehasis Chakraborty failed to score putting pressure on the team. Rahul Kumar and Dipendu Biswas scored to reduce the margin to 2-3 and with Biswadip missing all hopes of Mohan Bagan rested on Gourango to equalize.

However, he failed to score and it was all over.

Mohun Bagan played an aggressive attacking game from the first minute but failed to strike in the first half. At the other end, e Alvito D Cunha gave East Bengal the lead with a left foot grounder in the injury time of the first session.

Crossing over, Mohun Bagan drew parity through Satish Kumar and Ashim Biswas made it 2-1 with a header. However, Bagan could retain their lead for only 12 minutes when Robin Singh equalized for East Bengal.

In the extra time, Robin Singh found the target for East Bengal before Harpreet Singh brought both sides to an even keel.