Strategic Bagan goes to final

Today Mohun Bagan faced Chirag United in the semi final of 114th IFA shield. After 120 minutes of excitement, agony & fury Mohun Bagan won the match in tie-breaker by 5-4 margin. Today Karim started the game with 4-5-1 formation. Hero of the last match Shilton Pal was in the goal.Masih,Surkumar,Deepak & Mohanraj were in defense line. In the midfield Karim used Marcos,Micky,Snehasish,James & Kuluthungan.Chiddi was used as a single striker in upfront. Both the teams started the game with low pace just to get used to the newly installed field turf of YBK.In the 4th minute of the game Mohanraj’s long throw was gripped safely by Chirag custodian Sandeep Nandy.Chirag replied back with Josimar’s cross which was headed wide by Gouranga Biswas.In the 9th minute of the game Chirag’s brazilian defender DU & Mohun Bagan’s Nigerian Chiddi went for an aerial ball. After the air tussle DU rushed towards Chiddi & they got involved in a love-loss. The referee consulted with the linesman & gave marching order to Chiddi while DU escaped with just an yellow even doing the same offence.Bagan players were stunned to get this early shock.Chiddi was unwilling to leave the pitch but MR.Karim Bencharifa took him out of the pitch. At that time Chirag coach was smiling but he was not aware of the fact that football God had written something else for him. Then Karim made some significant changes. He sent Kulu in the upfront & Mohun Bagan started playing in long ball. Marcos took charge of the midfield. He initiated an attack but was brought down near opponent’s box. No foul given. In the 28th minute Micky headed the ball from Marcos’s cross. Just went wide. In the meantime Chirag was taking advantage of number but rock solid defense led by Deepak didn’t allow them to create any chances.Mohun Bagan was trying hard but Kulu was getting outnumbered by Chirag defenders.1st half ended with 0-0 score line. In the 2nd half Shilton Pal was remarkable. He saved Parmindar’s shot & it went away kissing the crossbar.Mohun Bagan tried to put some pressure on Chirag’s defence.Most of their attacks were Marcos centric.Mohun Bagan got a free kick in dangerous place. Marcos took the shot ____waste.Mohun Bagan defenders were sending long balls to Marcos but it was difficult for him to beat DU alone. In the 78th minute Karim injected fresh blood Santa in place of Kulu.Last 10 minutes of the 2nd half Mohun Bagan defense line was coming in overlap to back up Bagan midfield. We could see some good moves by Santa-Marcos but they couldn’t convert any of those.2nd half over. Match went to extra time with the same scoreline. In the extra time both the teams were playing careful football.Nothing could seperate between them.Chirag was creating some chances from long rangers but it was all about Shilton then. He was extra ordinary at that time. In the 119th minute of the game Bagan coach Karim took the most significant and risky decision of the game. May be this was his master stroke. He substituted Shilton with Sangram.Shilton was disappointed with that change but coach was looking relaxed as if he had won the match at that point. Then came the final chapter of the story.In the tie breaker Jayanta Sen from Chirag came to take the shot.Sangram’s jump towards left was enough to make thousands of Mohun Bagan supporters jump with joy & glory. Then all the shooters scored and James Singh came to take last shot for Bagan.After his shot ESPN commentator rightly said his name as ‘James King’. Scorers for Chirag : Lalam,Du,Lalkamal,Subhasish. Scorers for Bagan: Marcos,Masih,Snehasish,Surkumar,James. Now Mohun Bagan will face Churchill Brothers in the final on 12th September. In the final they will miss Chiddi.But After today’s win team spirit has gone high.Karim must have to think about alternative plans to bring IFA shield back to bay of Bengal after long time period. Reported by :Mr.Biswanath Chatterjee.