Minerva Punjab FC beat Punjab Police in the penalties to win their second consecutive Punjab Super League title in a thrilling finale.
With Minerva bidding to defend their title, Punjab Police played more freely in the start and piled up some early pressure to unsettle the defending champions. They reaped the benefits of that pressure with a goal in just the fifth minute of the game.
With the first goal on the scoreboard, Punjab Police grew in confidence and started dominating the game and got another goal seven minutes after their first.
However, Minerva did not back down and Girik, in the 19th minute, brought Minerva back in the game with a sumptuous strike from the right.
After getting the goal through some decent link up play, Minerva started using the flanks and a flurry of chances arrived but they failed to find the equaliser as the first half action came to an end.
Minerva started on the attack right from the start of the second half. But it was in the 70th minute that they finally found the equaliser.
A nice one-two between the upfront players inside the Punjab Police penalty area led to Dicka getting a low shot in the back of the net.
Both teams unable to find another goal, the match went into extra time with the full time scoreboard reading 2-2. The extra time was much of the same story as both teams searched for a goal but could not find it.
Punjab Police began the penalty shootout and scored the first goal and Minerva's Himanshu scored his team's first penalty as well. Minerva goalkeeper Bhaskar Roy then saved the second Punjab Police penalty after which both teams converted all their chances and Minerva emerged victorious.
Comments
0 comment