Mohun Bagan in Durand Cup Football Semi-Finals: Punjab defeated in ‘Sudden Death’; Bengaluru beat Kerala Blasters 1-0

Defending champions Mohun Bagan have entered the semi-finals of Durand Cup football, Asia’s oldest tournament. Here, Bengaluru FC defeated Kerala Blasters 1-0 to make it to the top-4. In the other quarter-finals of the day, Shillong Lajong and Northeast United also won. In Jamshedpur on Friday, Mohun Bagan defeated Punjab FC 6-5 in sudden death (tiebreaker) in a thrilling quarter-final. Earlier, the match was tied 3-3 after the stipulated time. Here, in another quarter-final at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata, Bengaluru defeated Kerala Blasters on the strength of Pereria Diaz’s goal in the last moments. Match report ahead… Mohun Bagan vs Punjab FC match… Cummins missed the chance, Bagan won with Meetei’s goal
In the tie-breaker, Cummins missed Bagan’s first chance, but Punjab’s Croatian defender Novoselech’s attempt was thwarted by Bagan goalkeeper Vishal Kaith. In sudden death, Melroy Assisi scored for Punjab while Subhasish Bose and Eldred scored for Bagan. Vishal sealed the team’s victory by making a brilliant save on Denechandram Meetei’s attempt. In the tie breaker, Manvir, Liston Colaco and Dimi Petratos scored for Bagan while Vinit Rai, Vidal, Bakenga and Mrizaljak scored for Punjab Efsary. Punjab was leading 1-0 till half time. Punjab’s Luka Majcen scored a goal with the help of a spot-kick in the 17th minute of the match to give his team a 1-0 lead. This was the only goal in the first half of the match. Then Suhail Bhat (44th) and Manvir Singh (48th) gave Mohun Bagan the lead at the start of the second half. After that, with the goals of Filip Mrjaljak (63rd) and Norberto Ezequiel Vidal (71st), Punjab once again took a 3-2 lead in the 71st minute of the match. In such a situation, Australia’s experienced Jason Cummings equalized the score by scoring a goal in the 79th minute. After which the match went into extra time where both the teams failed to score a goal. Here is the Bengaluru vs Kerala match… Bengaluru won with Pereria Diaz’s goal
The second match of the day was also very exciting where Bengaluru had to wait for injury time (90+4 minutes) to take the lead. In the match, Bengaluru’s team was dominating from the beginning, but Kerala’s defense was foiling its every attempt. After India’s former captain Sunil Chhetri came on the field in the 67th minute, Bengaluru dominated, but the team kept struggling for a goal. In the last moments of the match, Pereria Diaz scored a goal and gave Bengaluru the lead. This proved to be the decisive goal.