Inter Kashi knocked Bengaluru FC out of the Super Cup football tournament in penalty shootout after both sides were locked 1-1 in regulation time and booked a quarterfinal spot in Bhubaneswar on Wednesday. Ryan Williams gave Bengaluru FC the lead in the 61st minute but Inter Kashi equalised through Matija Babovic in the 87th minute to take the match to the shootout. Inter Kashi won 5-3 in the shootout. David Humanes Munoz, Bijoy V, Nikola Stojanovic, Aritra Das and Babovic scored their penalties for Inter Kashi, while Ryan Williams, Sunil Chhetri and Jorge Pereyra Diaz were the successful penalty takers for Bengaluru FC.
In the other match of the day, Lallianzuala Chhangte delivered a captain’s performance with a dazzling brace as Mumbai City FC breezed past Chennaiyin FC 4-0 in a dominant round of 16 match.
Nikolaos Karelis (43rd) scored the first goal for Mumbai City before Chhangte (64th, 86th) stole the show with his two goals. Substitute Bipin Singh (90th) struck in the last minute as Mumbai City made it to the quarterfinals in style.
In the first match, contrary to expectations, Inter Kashi were the ones who kicked strongly off the blocks, taking the game to the ISL runners-up side.
In the 15th minute, they had their first big chance to go ahead, when Edmund Lalrindika sent the ball to K Prasanth. The forward made a mazy run and evaded his marker but his shot hit the upright when he had only Gurpreet Singh Sandhu to beat.
Minutes later, Edmund took matters into his hands, expertly controlling an aerial ball in the box before dragging his shot just wide of the far post.
Bengaluru had seen enough and knew they had to assert themselves.
In the 22nd, Ryan Williams did just that, latching on to a long ball, and then swerving it around Shubham Das, who had made an ill-advised charge off his line.
Williams laid the ball off to Edgar Mendez in the box to fire at an empty goal, but his shot was blocked by a defender. The rebound fell to Alberto Noguera in the six-yard box, and even the Spaniard’s shot was blocked, with Inter Kashi’s defenders putting their body on the line to protect the goal.
The momentum had shifted though, and soon enough Williams released Namgyal Bhutia on the right. The winger twisted outwards, before dragging the ball back to his left foot and firing just wide of the near post.
The first half’s antics weren’t done yet, and Inter Kashi came close once again when Edmund squared a ball back to Mario Barco. The forward couldn’t connect well with his first effort and the attempt was picked off by the defenders.
Like in the first half, Inter Kashi were again quicker at the start of the second and tested Sandhu multiple times within the first 10 minutes, the best attempt coming from Nikola Stojanovic’s free kick.The Serbian had fired a perfectly placed shot to the far corner, bent away from the wall, only for Sandhu to dive at full stretch and palm it away.
In the 62nd minute, Bengaluru finally broke the deadlock. A long ball from Noguera in the midfield drew Das off his line, but the goalkeeper failed to collect the ball leaving it instead to Williams who calmly brought it under control, before finishing from a sharp angle.
The game seemed to be drifting towards the inevitable result before Inter Kashi dialled up things in the final 10 minutes.
First, Bidyasagar Singh had a chance when Aritra Das cut the ball back inside the box from the left, only to have it cleared off his feet.
Das’ fizzing cross found their target eventually though, and in the 87th minute, Babovic cheekily flicked it in, wrong-footing his marker and Sandhu to grab a late equaliser and send the game to a shootout.
In the subsequent shootout, Inter Kashi goalkeeper Shubham guessed the right way and saved Alberto Noguera’s penalty to take Inter Kashi to the quarterfinals.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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