The Bangladeshi league champion scored the lone goal in the dying minutes of the first-half of extra time. Yoko, who was later adjudged man-of-the-match, scored the winner in a pass from Shahid to lift the second title in Nepal after 11 years. [break]
Dhanmondi had earlier lifter the title of Budhasubba Gold Cup beating Nepal Police Club in the final match in 2057 BS.
The visiting team from Bangladesh kept Army under pressure from in the early stages of the game. Army made a remarkable progress later on but couldn´t win the match.
Dhanamundi tested the Army´s second-choice keeper Gangaram Deuja within the 10th minute as he punched a shot by Mustafa from outside the box.
On the other side of the pitch, Santosh Nepali´s shot in the 24th minute was ruled as offside. Army also missed a good chance in the 45th minute when Tanka Basnet failed to score in a pass from Tek Nahadur Budhathoki.
Army came close to scoring in the second half but Bikarna Shrestha´s header in the 61st minute hit the bar and bounced back. The Army players were unable to score the rebound as well.
Bangladesh received a free-kick three minutes later. Army´s custodian Deuja again denied Bangladesh a goal by punching a well-taken shot by Femi.
Likewise, Army´s Hiranya Magar also had a shot on target in the 82nd minute but his long shot was punched by Dhanmondi´s keeper Aminul.
The match headed toward extra time after the teams failed to score within the allotted 90 minutes. Finally Dhanmondi made the breakthrough to take away Rs 250,000 prize money. Runner-up Army received Rs 125,000.
Army´s coach Yogambar Suwal said that the players didn´t play up to the expectation. He also attributed the loss for not being able to utilized the scoring opportunities. “We lost some good chances to score,” said Suwal.
Dhanmondi´s coach Saifulbari Titu said that the final was much difficult than what they anticipated. He added that the team had a hard time defeating Army because their star-player Everton could not feature in the final match after being booked for two subsequent yellow cards in the earlier matches.
“We dominated the first 20 minutes but the opponents made a remarkable fight-back,” he said, applauding the Army players.
Deuja was declared the best goalkeeper of the tournament. Army´s Chun Bahadur Thapa was adjudged the best defender while Dhanmondi´s Yoko and Everton received the awards for the best midfielder and best forward respectively. Pokhara XI´s coach Krishna Thapa received the award for the best coach.
All of these received Rs 15,000 each.
Related story
Safal International Marathon from Feb 19
-1780813474.webp)
