The 64th Edition of Santosh Trophy came to a thrilling conclusion when host Bengal beat Punjab by 2-1 goal in front of the home crowd at Saltlake Stadium in Kolkata. With this win, Bengal won the Trophy a record 30 times.
Trailing by a goal, Bengal made a superb turnaround in the injury time of first-half, when the Bengal’s Captain Corner kick was headed into the net by Chirag United’s Devadas. Dominating right from the start of the second half, Bengal missed few chances. Finally in the 78th minute, in a one-two attack with Robin, Devadas scored the decisive goal. A left-footer powerful strike by the midfielder found the back of the Punjab net after hitting the inside post as the scores of Bengal supporters went delirious in joy.
Earlier, Punjab took the lead with a Rahul Kumar centre from the mid-field, which was misjudged by Abhra who came out of his position as Balwant headed it home in front of an open net. Bengal defender Arnab Mondal had a chance to hold the strike but he was late to react as Balwant''s header had already crossed the mark.
Finally for Bengal, the win No. 30 did come after an eleven long year’s drought. And certainly this win will revive the Bengal Football again and bring back its glorious days. With this win also came lots of cash bonanza for the Bengal team. Apart from the winner’s prize of Rs 5 Lakhs, West Bengal Sports Minister, Kanti Ganguly announced a cash reward of Rs 5 Lakhs. I-League Club, Chirag United also announced a reward of Rs 5 Lakhs while the hosts Indian Football Association also announced a cash award of Rs 2 lakh.
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