The Hindu : Sport : Bengal eyeing its 30th title

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Wednesday, Oct 25, 2006
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Bengal eyeing its 30th title

Kirti Patil

GURGAON: Bengal, eyeing its 30th Santosh Trophy title, will have a tough fight against a strong Punjab in the final of the 61st National football championship at the Gurgaon Sports Complex here on Wednesday.

Bengal, which will be making its 40th appearance in the final, has been a revelation after being forced to qualify from the cluster of 29 teams in this championship that has lasted for over 40 days.

The ignominy of being made to qualify for the elite league has spurred Bengal on. Despite starting with the junior players, as the pros decided to take rest, Bengal has managed to reach the final. "We are happy that the juniors stood out,'' Bengal coach Prasanta Banerjee said, praising Tapan Maity, Avinash Thapa, Shyam Mondal and Bijoy Bisfore, who were unheard of a month ago.

Having dominated the preliminary league as expected, Bengal had a scare against Services in the pre-quarterfinals before winning by a solitary goal. Again in the quarterfinal league, Bengal, in a must-win situation in the last league match against Punjab, won thanks to Dipendu Biswas's freak kick from about five yards outside the box.

Midfield battle

The reliable Punjab defence was caught unawares, but in the final, the last year's semifinalists will surely be extra vigilant.

The final will be a battle of the midfield and the team which manages to control it should emerge victorious.

"We are certainly not going to play the way we did in the quarterfinal league match against Punjab last week,'' said the Bengal coach Prasanta Banerjee. "We would like to finish the match in the regulation time,'' he added.

Against favourite Kerala in the semifinal too, Bengal lived on the edge throughout and won 4-2 in the tie-breaker.

Bengal will start with its reserve goalkeeper, Abhra Mondal, as Kalyan Chaubey, who was injured in the semifinal clash is still recovering. The rest of the side however, will be unchanged. "I would not like to disturb the winning combination as the bunch of juniors are charged up to take on Punjab yet again,'' Banerjee said.

Punjab, which last won the title in 1987 beating Kerala, will be without its star player, Manjit Singh. The striker was injured in a league match and has since left for home. "Manjit's absence will be felt. However, we are absolutely confident of beating Bengal this time around,'' said Punjab coach Jagir Singh.

"We will not commit the same mistake and would like to finish the contest in 90 minutes,'' Jagir said.

Since its last title, Punjab has made it to the final twice — against Bengal in 1994 and a decade later in 2004 in New Delhi against Kerala.

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