Jamshedpur FC knock I-League winners Minerva Punjab out of Super Cup

Goalkeeper Sanjiban Ghosh turned out to be the hero of the match as Jamshedpur FC prevailed over I-league champions Minerva Punjab 5-4 in sudden death and enter the quarterfinals of the Super Cup in Bhubaneswar on Monday.

Jamshedpur FC were through to the last eight of the tournament’s inaugural edition when Gagandeep Bali’s shot was stopped by Sanjiban.

Kervens Belfort, Wellington Priori, Bikey, Sumeet Passi and Mehtab Hussain scored for Jamshedpur FC.

William Opoku, Eric Dano, Akashdeep Singh and Kamalpreet Singh found the net for Minerva Punjab in the shootout of an evenly contested contest that went the distance.

It was all square at the end of 90 minutes as the two teams headed for 30 minutes of extra time.

And the script remained the same at the end of 120 minutes too, leading to penalty shootout at the Kalinga Stadium.

As the game headed towards the end of regulation time, both teams had had an almost equal number of chances at the goal, yet they failed to break the deadlock. Also, there was not much to separate the two as far as ball possession was concerned.

Minerva’s star player Chencho Gyeltshen had two clear cut chances from close range in the second half of extra time but Jamshedpur goalkeeper Sanjiban Ghosh saved his team on both occasions with his smart anticipation at the post.

Jamshedpur have had a fairly decent Indian Super League debut season finishing fifth in the points table with seven victories and six defeats in 18 matches played.

On the other hand, Minerva Punjab scripted a fairytale journey to win the I-League title in only their second season in top-flight football.