Dorielton Gomez scored a late winner as 10-man Bashundhara Kings came from a goal down to laugh the last laugh with winning the Indpendence Cup title defeating Mohammedan Sporting Club by 2-1.
Held at the Sheikh Fazlul Haque Moni Stadium, Gopalganj, in a bit tensed final, Bashundhara Kings had to play with 10-man in the almost full second half of the match.
After an unexciting goalles draw of the first half, Mohammedan took the lead through Emmanuel Tony inside five minutes of the second half but just a minute after Bashundhara levelled it through Rakib Hossain when Dorielton slammed hoem the winning goal on 86th minute.
The initial hour of the final match though had not the pace, as it was expcted. The full opening 45 minutes could rare produce enough excitements in the final encounter of the traditional giants and the new powerhouses.
In the full first half exchanges, both sides could created only one scoring chance each with Kings captain Robson Robinho and Mohammedan defender Muzaffarov tried to break the deadlock.
But the strong long range effort from Robson was successfully saved by Mohammedan custodian Sujob Hossain while Muzaffarov’s efforst narrowly missed the side post.
However, after the dull and goalless first half, both sides made the second half brightly but spurned several good chances.
The second half game turned into huge excitement with a red card and two goal insides five minutes of kicking off. Bashundhara forward Rafique was sent off for taking an ugly tackle on 48th minute and one goal came from each side in a span of a minute on 50th and 51st minute.
However, Mohammedan drew the first blood with their Nigerian forward Emmanuel Tony celebrated Muzaffarov corner with connecting well his header on 50th minute. But Mohammedan’s lead did not last a long, as national colour Rakib Hossain equalized the margin just after a minute with an excellent grounder from inside the box.
Emmanuel broke the deadlock to lead Mohammedan when a Mozaffarov pintpointed cormer found the Nigerain very closer to the goal line and his close rang header went into the far corner of the net on 50th minute (1-0).
Bashundhara did not take time to react strongly with their ten-man to level the margin just after a minute when after a Robson’s effort rebounded hittig a defender, Rakib took the possession and beat the MSC keeper with a superb gronder on 51st (1-1).
After one all draw, both sides fought with exchanging the possessions almost eaqually, though could not open the net with converting the chances came to their ways.
When the match was heading to extra 30 minutes time, Dorielton stunned the Black and White with a strong right-footer having the ball from Miguel in an open space inside the area (2-1).