Kolkata: It was that man again. It was those hands again. It’s Mohun Bagan SG again, in another Durand Cup final.
Vishal Kaith came up with a couple of game-changing saves in the shootout for the second match running, helping Mohun Bagan complete a remarkable comeback from two-goal down to first catch up with Bengaluru FC 2-2 in regulation time and then edged them 4-3 on penalties in their Durand Cup semifinal at the Salt Lake Stadium on Tuesday.
Jose Molina’s side will take on NorthEast United FC in the final on Saturday, looking to defend their title and further extend their reign in Asia’s oldest football tournament.
Yet again Mohun Bagan’s title-defence looked to be in tatters when Bengaluru shot to a 2-goal lead, thanks to Sunil Chhetri’s penalty in the 42nd minute and Vinith Venkatesh’s goal 5 minutes after the break.
But a perfect penalty conversion from Dimitri Petratos in the 68th minute handed the defending champions a lifeline. And Aniruth Thapa made it 2-2 in the 84th minute with a piledriver out of nowhere.
Kaith — who orchestrated a similar comeback for his team five days ago, effecting a couple of saves in a sudden-death win over Punjab FC in the quarterfinals — took the centrestage again as another penalty shootout ensued.
After Jason Cummings, Manvir Singh, Liston Colaco and Dimitri Petratos made 4 in 4 for the home team, Kaith saved Halicharan Narzary’s kick to hand Molina’s brigade the first advantage after Edgar Mendez, Rahul Bheke and Pedro Capo converted the first three attempts for BFC. But India goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu dived to his right to stop Greg Stewart’s shot to keep BFC’s hope alive. But it was short-lived as Kaith’s hands came to Bagan’s rescue again, pulling off another save to deny Aleksandar Jovanovic.
Kaith’s show-stealing performance in back-to-back matches came after the Bagan goalkeeper failed to make the new India coach Manolo Marquez’s list of probables for next month’s Intercontinental Cup.
As 30000-odd home supporters braved the city’s volatile situation complicated by rallies, to turn up at the stadium, it was BFC who started on a positive note. Bagan left-back Subhashis Bose had to leave early due to an injury and was replaced by young Dipendu Biswas. It was through this left channel that BFC came calling and Vinith earned a penalty when Liston tripped him from behind. Chhetri — who had failed to beat Kaith from a one-on-one situation early on — made no mistake from the spot.
Bagan ended the first half with Liston and Alberto Rodriguez denied by the woodwork. But BFC returned to the field to swell their lead when Jorge Pereyra Diaz swooped on a defensive mistake and laid it off for Vinith to finish it with a simple tap-in.
Game over? No way.
Stewart missed a sitter after Gurpreet made a mess of Bheke’s backpass. But Bagan could not be denied for long as Bheke was found guilty of pulling Manvir down from behind, leading referee Venkatesh R to point to the spot and Petratos sent Gurpreet the wrong way from the resultant penalty.
Thapa then pulled a rabbit out of the hat, his ferocious strike from 25 yards out giving Gurpreet no chance to react. That goal gave Bagan the belief and Kaith did the rest, standing tall under the bar in the shootout and took Bagan to the cusp of Durand record-extending title No. 18.