xtratime | Home

Location in Google Map

Fed Cup 2017: Mohun Bagan advances to the semi final with a thrilling win over Shillong Lajong

[caption id="attachment_44428" align="aligncenter" width="600"]

Fed Cup 2017: Mohun Bagan advances to the semi final with a thrilling win over Shillong Lajong. | Image: File picture[/caption] Internet Desk: Mohun Bagan advances to the semi final of the 38th Federation Cup at Cuttack with a thumping win over Shillong Lajong, despite conceding a goal in the opening minute. Sony Norde led the team as an inspiration and Debjit Majumder made some stunning saves to make it 3-2 in favour of the Mariners.

Mohun Bagan started the game in a shocking fashion. In the opening minute they conceded a goal when Rupert Nongrum lofted the ball into the box from range towards Fabio Pena who was marked closely by Eduardo. The ball found Kotal's right foot and the ball went straight into the net with Debjit Majumder left perplexed over the course of events in a matter of seconds.

Though Mohun Bagan showed great character and came back with the equalizer immediately. Darryl Duffy made the scores level within two minutes of conceding. Norde released the ball from the left side, Duffy made a run to force Kaith to come out of the box. Aibor too failed to keep up the line with the Scot and a novice mistake by Kaith in a failed attempt to clear the ball meant Duffy slowly guided it in with a left-footer even before Chinglensana could attempt to clear it. Mohun Bagan got a golden opportunity in the 14th minute. Balwant laid it over to Katsumi running off his marker and forcing Kaith to come forward. The Japanese man passed to Duffy who could not get the ball in without the keeper in sight as Aibor came good with a block.

In the 25th minute, Lajong got a great chance as Samuel Shadap went past Kotal and drifted to shoot from the box. A powerful shot by the diminutive forward was punched out brilliantly by Debjit Majumder. Sony Norde gave the lead to Mohun Bagan in the 27th minute. A free-kick for the Mariners from 23 yards and Vishal Kaith had no chance as the Haitian slammed it into the top right corner to make it 2-1 in favour of them.

Mohun Bagan kept piling on the pressure as the Lajong goalkeeper Vishal Kaith made a series of saves. Injured Subhasish Bose was taken off in the 42nd minute and Prabir Das replaced him. Japanese Katsumi Yusa barged in the third goal in the 43rd minute when in-form Balwant played Sony just onside and he turned twice inside the box beating Shadap for a diagonal cross as Yusa who avoided his own offside trap to get ahead of Pritam Kumar Singh and glided the ball in with ease to help his team go to the half time break with a sense a releaf. At the start of the second half Lajong coach Thangboi Singto made an interesting change as he brought in Alen Deory in place of Brazilian Fabio Pena. In the 72nd minute goal-line clearance saved Shillong from conceding more. It was a corner for Lajong and Chinglensana slammed it in but Souvik deflected and then Prabir, right in the edge of the goal-line blocked it out.

Mohun Bagan got the best chance of the second half in the 77 minute when Sony was all alone inside the box and for a change, Kaith stayed on his line. Instead of going for a shot, he weakly crossed for Jeje but the defender cleared it off. double his tally tonight!

Shillong came back late into the game in the 80th minute when Yuta Kinowaki scored a deflected goal to make the scoreline 2-3 in favour of Lajong. In the last 10 minutes, both the teams tried their heart out to fetch a goal but the defence of both the teams stood firm and didn't allow the opposition forwards to score any goal.