A 26th minute penalty goal from ONGC striker ND Opara was enough for the Mumbai side to seal the victory over the only Nepali team remaining in the tournament.[break]
ONGC were awarded a penalty after MMC defender Kalu Thapa handled the ball inside the box in a bid to defend ONGC skipper Jatin Bist´s shot.
ONGC will now meet the winners between Shillong Lajong and BNR, Kolkata in the final on Tuesday.
MMC, which played with a one-man advantage over ONGC, dubbed the strongest team of the event, for 57 minutes but failed to capitalize on it. ONGC skipper Bist was given marching orders after he misbehaved with the referee and the assistant referee. He was shown two yellow cards, and the match was interrupted for seven minutes.
ONGC dominated the show for some moments before the interval, but they came under pressure in the second half as the Nepali side played an attacking game.
The Nepali team backed by a large number of local supporters made as many as half a dozen attacks, but failed to find the back of the net. The stubborn defending line up of the I-League side and a couple of saves from goalie Billifung Narzary prevented MMC players from scoring.
“MMC gave a tough fight,” ONGC coach Sujit Chakraborty said, adding, “Their performance exceeded my expectations. Their show has been improving in every other match they play, and we came under pressure after skipper Bist misbehaved and conceded a red card.”
Ganesh Khadka and Nirajan Khadka´s feeble strike in the first half was easily taken by goalie Narzary. Similarly, the goalie punched substitute Sujal Shrestha´s powerful long-range strike, and Shrestha again squandered a scoring chance when his free bouncing header from the six-yard box went wide.
Ugandan Allan Oryek´s strike for MMC in the 70th minute went inches above the bar and Sulav Maskey´s shot in the 85th minute was taken by the goalie.
MMC coach Bal Gopal Maharjan expressed dissatisfaction toward the referee´s decision. “The referee favored the other team. MMC have proved how good they are coming up with such a performance against the so-called title contenders,” Maharjan said. He also lamented disappointing the Sikkim fans.
“Sikkim fans supported us a lot in our first participation, but we were unfortunate not to make it to the final."
Earlier, Nabil Three Star, the 2008 champions had crashed out from the quarterfinal in a rematch played against Bengal Mumbai FC on Saturday. They had lost 4-3 in tiebreaker after the regulation time finished in a 1-1 draw. In 2007, New Road Team had lifted the trophy.
Both Three Star and MMC are leaving Sikkim on Monday.
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