On a day when the country was glued to their TV sets watching the grand IPL final unfold, the football community took to the Federation cup to watch two heavy weights of Indian football take on each other in a mouth watering encounter. And the match lived up to its expectations, going right down to the wire, with Bengaluru FC winning it in extra time.
CK Vineeth showcased his poaching skills, by scoring two in extra time, after the game had ended 0-0 in regulation time here at the Barabati stadium in Cuttack.
The Fed Cup final was Bengaluru FC’s last chance of salvaging some pride in an otherwise mediocre season. They finished an underwhelming 4th in the league and would be ecstatic and relieved that they have a trophy to show for after a rather poor season.
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Mohun Bagan were featuring in their 20th Fed Cup final. They were bruised after Aizawl FC pipped them to the I-League title and were desperate to get their hands on the trophy in order to have something to show for this gruelling season.
Bengaluru FC were without Sunil Chhetri and Cameron Watson for the game, but stuck to their plans of stacking up their defense and suffocating the Mohun Bagan forwards. Bagan held possession for most parts of the game but were just not able to break the deadlock, thanks to be stout defending by John Johnson, Juanan Fernandez and Sandesh Jhingan.
Bengaluru FC did produce the best chance of the game, when against the run of play, a beautifully constructed cross from Lyngdoh found Udanta Singh in some space inside the box, who buried it home, only to be ruled offside.
Bagan answered with a sea of attacks on the Bengaluru goal and almost broke the deadlock, only to be stopped by Jhingan’s goal line clearance(in the 30th minute).
BFC had a goal disallowed in the second half as well, when Lyngdoh’s cross was headed by Johnson and kicked in by Juanan only to be ruled offside, again.
Going to extra time, it felt like Bagan’s domination throughout the game could bring in a sense of frustration in BFC, but that wasn’t to happen. CK Vineeth’s deflected shot landed in the back of the next in 107th minute to hand BFC a crucial lead. A brilliant solo goal from him in the 119th minute the sealed the deal for BFC, as a night frustration ended with jubilation for them.
