34th Federation Cup: East Bengal beat Churchill Bros in extra-time

Kolkata giants East Bengal Club reached their fourth Federation Cup final in a row through an extra-time 1-0 victory against Churchill Brothers SC in the first 34th Federation Cup semifinal at the Kanchenjunga Stadium. Substitute Lalrindika Ralte's superb strike was the only goal of the night infront of a healthy crowd in Siliguri.

East Bengal now await the winner of tomorrow nights second semifinal between Dempo SC and Salgaocar FC in the Federation Cup final on Sunday night.

In the first session the action was mainly confined to the midfield with Sandip Nandy and Abhijit Mondal rarely tested by the opposing teams. Things got a little better after the break but the defenders and midfielders worked in tandem to deny the opponents. A rather uneventful match ended on expected lines goalless after 90 minutes.

In extra-time things didn't get much better until the 110th minute when substitute and former Churchill Brothers winger Lalrindika Ralte volleyed the ball into the nets to seal the victory for the red-and-gold. Only minutes later Churchill Brothers were reduced to 10 men when substitute Israil Gurung brought down another substitute in Sanju Pradhan and received his marching orders. Until the end the Goans didn't get a chance worth an equaliser and in the end East Bengal won the match 1-0.


MATCH STATS

Churchill Brothers SC 0-1 (0-0) East Bengal Club [extra-time] - Goals: 0-1 Lalrindika Ralte (110')

Churchill Brothers SC
21-Sandip Nandy - 12-Denzil Franco, 13-Dharmaraj Ravanan, 4-Bilal Sheikh El Najjarin, 18-Thangjam Saran Singh - 28-Bikramjit Singh, 20-W. Tomba Singh (11?' 16-Amandeep Singh), 24-Lenny Rodrigues, 10-Roberto Mendes Silva [C] - 35-T. Bineesh Balan (68' ??-Israil Gurung), 9-Henry Arnaud Antchouet Rebienot (51' 25-Akram Moghrabi)

East Bengal Club
1-Abhijit Mondal - 8-Thokchom Naoba Singh, 16-Gurwinder Singh, 4-Uga Okpara, 29-Soumik Dey - 7-Harmanjot Singh Khabra (94' 21-Lalrindika Ralte), 14-Mehtab Hussain [C], 18-Penn Ikechukwu Orji, 35-Ishfaq Ahmed (75' 15-Sanju Pradhan) - 10-Chidi Edeh, 26-Manandeep Singh (86' 6-Baljit Singh Sahni)

Referee
M.B. Santosh Kumar (Kerala)