The Salt Lake can reduce the best of 'em to pieces. All of Odisha's big names, their experienced old hands came up a cropper as Mohun Bagan ran out 2-0 winners (agg. 3-2), courtesy goals from Jason Cummings and Sahal Abdul Samad to reach the 2023-24 Indian Super League final, a league and cup double just another Salt Lake 90 away.
It barely took seconds for the cauldron in Kolkata to have its say. Roughly 62000 thronged the stands in maroon and green, and Ahmed Jahouh, who's barely misplaced a pass all season (and has a league-leading stat of passes completed per 90) pinged one straight to Anirudh Thapa who was closing him down. Thapa ought to have scored, but the missed opportunity did not matter.
Antonio Habas has never lost a second-leg knockout tie in the ISL. When Bagan need to win at the Salt Lake stadium, they win.
It doesn't help that the Salt Lake's din is added to by a city experiencing a heat wave with temperatures as high as 43 degrees. You then mix in the way Habas had his players begin the game - a barely believable high press with a tempo and intensity that would remain unmatched -- and even the best would wilt, like Amrinder Singh did.
The Odisha custodian, normally an assured, experienced presence in goal, produced a howler that no one expected when Dimi Petratos lined one up in the 22nd minute. The Bagan attacker's strike was pure, but was one that could have been easily diverted away from danger. Instead, Amrinder palmed it straight back into the box and Cummings was on hand to tap it home.
A gift, and one that its 62000 recipients received with glee. Even 22 minutes in, with the scores only level on aggregate, there was an air that Bagan had done the hard part, that there was only going to be one winner. It's in scenarios such as this that complacency can creep in, and with Roy Krishna ever-present to convert even the smallest sniff at goal, Bagan could have messed this all up.
Like they did 10 minutes into the second half. Manvir Singh went on a run that involved a fair bit of fortune as he beat a couple of defenders before facing up to a third in the box. His speed and strength earned him a yard, and all he had to do was square it to Cummings, unmarked, facing up to the goal. The Indian forward however, opted for a low drive across goal, and it was saved with relative ease.
Perhaps the Salt Lake was swallowing its own?
There's a reason, though, that Manvir Singh is a favourite of every manager to have been in charge of him over the last few seasons. He rarely dwells on his errors and is always there, doing what he ought to do, in a place he ought to be.
In the 70th minute, Manvir was there for Bagan, sliding to prevent what would have been a tap in for Isak Ralte at the far post, after a low cross from Krishna. A forward who's that defensively aware is what enables Habas to play three at the back and employ Manvir as a right-wingback - he's that fundamental. It's why the mistake in the 55th minute that would have sealed the tie was forgiveable.
And then, in the third minute of injury time, Manvir was at his best, this Schrodinger's cat of a footballer now displaying his best half an hour after his worst. He collected the ball down the left wing, beat Jerry Mawihmingthanga for pace and then repeated the trick against Amey Ranawade, the Odisha men left in a heap of dust. Amidst tiring legs, when the heat and the din had accounted for almost every other player on the pitch, Manvir pulled off a move that exemplified what makes him so beloved and frustrating in equal measure.
Manvir was in no position to take the strike but he'd learned his lesson, a low cross right to Sahal in the box, just begging to be tapped into the net. Sahal was perhaps the most deserving player to take Bagan into the final, having been instrumental in the team's early run-in, winning games all by his own self.
Not tonight though - "I think it's his goal," was how Sahal credited Manvir after the game, as the ball took a lucky ricochet of Sahal's face and bounced into the net, sealing Bagan's victory. A scrappy goal perhaps not as representative of the football Bagan have played under Habas 2.0, but the Spaniard would not frown at this.
And in a victory for the league, it was another late goal made by Indian players that proved pivotal. Bagan made big moves for the best available Indian players coming into the season, and perhaps it is only fitting that they will be favourites for the final, which will take place at the Salt Lake again.
The Salt Lake can reduce the best of 'em to pieces, except when clad in the armor of maroon and green. For Bagan, another trophy awaits.