Bagan lift Federation Cup

Kolkata:

Goalkeeper Sangram Mukherjee emerged the hero bringing off two fine penalty saves as Mohun Bagan claimed the 28th Peerless Federation Cup with a 3-1 tie-break victory over Sporting Clube-de-Goa in a riveting final on Saturday. The match rolled into the penalty shootout as the two sides remained locked 1-1 after the regulation 90 minutes and even half an hour of extra time could not break the deadlock. Sporting had a nightmarish time in the tiebreaker as Jose Carvallo's first shot crashed into the post, and Sangram showed fine anticipation to save the next attempt from Earnest Jeremiah by diving to his right. Though Nicolas Borges scored from the third, Bagan raced to their 12th title in the premier knockout tournament as Sangram blocked Jagdish Papai's fourth penalty, triggering celebrations in the Salt Lake stadium where more than 70,000 Bagan fans assembled to see the nail-biting match. Thundering left footer Bagan, on the other hand, netted each of their three penalties with Jose Barreto, Dipendu Biswas and Favio Vidal coming up successful. Earlier, both teams scored in the first half, with Harmanjot Khabra putting the Goans ahead, before Fabio got the equaliser for Bagan, the most successful team in the history of the tournament. The visitors drew first blood in the sixth minute as Harmanjot Khabra put a Nicholas Rodrigues free kick into the net with a thundering left footer that gave no chance to Sangram Mukherjee. Bagan, on the receiving end of Sporting's repeated forays in the first quarter of an hour, slowly regrouped and seized the initiative after some time.