Underdogs Army XI, Bangalore, shocked title contenders JCT, Phagwara, 5-4, in the penalty shoot-out and moved into the final of the Durand Cup football tournament at the Ambedkar stadium in Delhi on Thursday.
In an evenly contested but uninspiring match, the teams failed to score in regulation and extra-time and had to settle the issue via the tie-breaker.
The Armymen, who made it into the semi-finals without scoring a single victory -- drawing with Dempo (Goa) and Air India (Mumbai), but topping the group on the toss of the coin were, also lucky today as they scraped into the final.
In the shoot-out, Harish Sharma's penalty was saved by the Army custodian after four JCT players -- Sunil Chetri, Parveen Kumar, Jaswinder Singh and Daljit Singh -- converted their penalties. All the five Armymen -- Nguernilal, Vijay Thapa, Thirunavukarsu, Birendra Bodra and Raghu Kumar -- found the target.
The match failed to live up to the expectations of the sparse crowd with both the teams failing to produce any clear scoring chances and the ball moving one end to the other throughout the match. Though JCT made more forays into the rival box, their forwards were unable to penetrate the Army defence.
The Bangalore side, which made it to the quarter-final stage of the tournament as a qualifier, will now play Sporting Club de Goa in the final on Saturday, their second such appearance in the tournament. They lost 0-3 to East Bengal in the final in 2002.
