Mohun Bagan Super Giant will look to defend their Durand Cup title in the final against NorthEast United on Saturday, after beating Bengaluru FC 4-3 on penalties in the semifinal at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata on Tuesday.
Bagan had to make a stirring second half comeback to even take the game into penalties after Bengaluru had gone 2-0 up thanks to goals from Sunil Chhetri and Vinith Venkatesh. But a Dimi Petratos penalty and an Anirudh Thapa screamer leveled things late in the second half, before Vishal Kaith took centre-stage in a penalty shootout again, with two saves off Halicharan Narzary and Aleksandar Jovanovic to give Bagan the win.
Bagan made six changes to their side from the one that started the quarterfinal over Punjab FC, and there was a sense that this was their strongest team. Petratos made his first start of the season, with Anirudh Thapa, Sahal Abdul Samad and Apuia Ralte forming the midfield three. But even with all that strength, it was Bengaluru who began the game the best. They created half-chances, but nothing really clear-cut, until midway through the first half when Sunil Chhetri ran through one-on-one with Kaith, but was stopped in his tracks by a superb Alberto Rodriguez tackle.
Chhetri would get his goal soon enough, this time from the penalty spot, after Vinith was clumsily brought down by Liston Colaco. Vinith then doubled Bengaluru's lead early in the second half, after Jorge Pereyra Diaz capitalised on a mistake in the Bagan defence, and squared the ball for the youngster to tap into an empty net.
From then on, Bagan created chance after chance, and were given a lifeline as Rahul Bheke tugged Manvir Singh's shirt in the box to give away a penalty that Petratos smashed home with ease. The equaliser was a spectacular one, as Thapa latched on to a headed clearance from a corner and unleashed a fierce volley from the edge of the box that nestled in the bottom right corner past Gurpreet Singh Sandhu.
Eventually, when it went to penalties, Gurpreet saved off Greg Stewart, but Kaith made one save more than him to take Bagan into another final.
You can relive all the action in our live blog below: