Kolkata giants Mohun Bagan squeezed into the semi-final with a 1-1 draw against Mumbai's Mahindra United in a well-fought group C encounter of the 114th IFA Shield football championship on Sunday.
Kolkata giants Mohun Bagan squeezed into the semi-final with a 1-1 draw against Mumbai's Mahindra United in a well-fought group C encounter of the 114th IFA Shield football championship on Sunday.
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Snehashish Chakraborty put Bagan ahead in the 25th minute, before Mijin Svetozar restored parity for the visitors soon after the beather.
Both Bagan and Mahindra finished their group engagements with four points, but the former made the cut for the semis because of a better goal difference.
The Kolkata team will play Untied SC in the Sep 9 semi-final.
Bagan's goal followed a perfect cross from the right by James Singh. Snehasish outjumped his markers and headed home brilliantly, giving no chance to rival goalkeeper Subhasish Roy Chowdhury.
Down 0-1 at the breather, Mahindra leveled in the 46th minute as K Aseem dribbled past Bagan's Sur Kumar Singh and fed an unguarded Svetozar who headed in.
Mahindra, desperately needing a win to move into the last four, were all over their opponents in the second session, but could not break the 1-1 deadlock.
Such was Mahindra's pressure that the Bagan supporters lost their cool and vented their ire by pelting stones and water bottles towards the Mumbai team's goal. Custodian Subhasish was hit by a missile and had a cut on his forehead. The match had to be stopped for eight minutes.
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