Federation Cup: Shillong Lajong oust East Bengal 4-3 with extra-time winner, enter semis

Barasat: Meghalaya outfit Shillong Lajong FC held their nerves to down East Bengal 4-3 on aggregate in extra-time to qualify for Federation Cup football semi-final on Wednesday. Trailing 1-2 in the first leg, East Bengal brought their campaign back on track with a 2-1 scoreline in the regulation time as the match advanced to the extra time with 3-3 on aggregate as Brazilian Ulliams Bomfin Souza struck the decisive goal in the 114th minute. Six minutes before the match was headed for a shootout verdict, the Brazilian chested the ball down from a Penn Orji cross before hitting the ball past TP Rehenesh to silence the home crowd. [caption id=“attachment_2766298” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] An extra time winner from Uilliams sends Shillong Lajong to the semi-finals of the Federation Cup. Image courtesy: Twitter[/caption] Shillong Lajong FC will now face the winners of Mohun Bagan and Salgaocar return leg clash on Thursday as the Mariners lead 3-2 heading into the home leg semis. Englishman Trevor Morgan, a two-time Federation Cup winning coach for East Bengal, thus began his second stint as the head coach in an ominous fashion failing to win against the Lajong outfit in three attempts inside 15 days. Lajong took a 17th minute lead through Fabio as seven minutes later, East Bengal equalised through Ranty Martins’ penalty lodging the ball into the bottom right corner from another penalty. Lalrindika Ralte kept East Bengal’s hopes alive with a magical left-footer when he shot from a Dong cross in the 37th minute. Bipin Singh wanted to cross in and he hits Deepak’s hand inside the box and Fabio delivered from the 12-yard spot by slotting into the left bottom corner for the first goal of the match. Rehenesh dives the right way but the ball went past under him. Lajong conceded the penalty after Nimodorjee Tamang handed the ball from Dong’s swivel shot in the 22nd minute as Ranty slotted it home. Earlier Sunday, the Meghalaya-based team defeated East Bengal 2-1 in the first-leg quater-final in Shillong. Lajong’s Konsham Chinglensana Singh (33’) opened the scoring before Do Dong-Hyun (44’) equalised right before half-time. Fabio Pena (62’) hit the winning goal but they were reduced to 10 players after Robin Gurung was sent off in the 87th minute.