Manvir Singh’s 119th minute strike silenced the partisan Goan crowd and handed over the 32nd Santosh Trophy National Football championship title to Bengal at the GMC stadium, Bambolim here on Sunday.
The striker, after receiving the pass from Shaikom Ronald Singh, curled a left footed shot from inside the box to beat Goan goalkeeper Bruno Ryan much to the delight of his coach Mridul Banerjee. Mirdul had persuaded the Minvera FC striker to come to Bengal and join Mohammedan Sporting FC. The tall striker reluctantly followed the coach’s advise and on Sunday reposed the faith and perhaps scored a career changing goal.
The Goans struggled to prosper against a tenacious Bengal side which didn’t concede a goal in open play for the sixth match in succession. Bengal was the better side in extra time. Manvir Singh should have sewn the match in the first half of extra time but his shot rebounded off the bar in the goalmouth melee.
Goans looked visibly tired in the extra and looked to be playing for the shootout as Bengal which went all out into attack. Just before Manvir’s match-winning goal Moirangthem Basnta Singh spurned a chance when he failed to connect an accurate pass from Shaikom singh who again did the hard work by making his way into the box from the right flank.
During regular time, Liston Colaco the two goal hero of semifinal was muzzled by Bengal defence. Liston started the match on a high by firing in a long ranger which missed the mark narrowly in the opening minute. But thereafter he was reined in by the defence and hardly got an opportunity to take a shot at the rival half.
In the first half, Goans held the upper-hand. The Goans worked the ball nicely along the flanks but the strikers weren’t given the space inside the box. In the 16th minute Aaren D’Silva could only come up with a feeble shot off a Leander D’Cuna’s pass and the goalkeeper Sankar Roy had no difficulty in saving it. Bengal’s best chance in the first half came in the 40th minute when Mumtaz Akthar’s long-ball found Manavir Singh, but the striker headed straight into the goalkeeper’s hands.
Goans in the second half used the pace of striker Akeraj Martins to unsettle the defence. But after a while it became predictable and Bengal defence neutralised the threat easily. The only time when Goans created a buzz in the second half was when Brian Mascranhes curled a fee-kick over the bar from just outside the box. Bengal went all out in the dying minutes and earned two chances. Moirangthem Basanta Sinngh induced a good save from the Goan goalkeeper in the 83rd minute and in the 87th minute Manvir blasted out a shot from close after being fed by Moirangthem Basasnta Singh. But the striker made amends for his misses with the match winner in the 119th minute.
The result
Bengal 1 (Manvir Singh 119) bt Goa 0.
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