There was penalty heartbreak in the inaugural season of Indian Super League on Wednesday night in which Atletico de Kolkata pipped FC Goa 4-2 in the penalty shootout to book their place in the finals of the Indian Super League.
Wednesday's semi-final at the second leg between FC Goa and Atletico de Kolkata at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium ended goalless and the draw had to be settled through penalties after both the teams played each other out after 210 minutes of football.
Kolkata will now take on Kerala Blasters in the final which is set to be played on 20th December in Mumbai.
Andres Santos and Amiri missed the penalties for Goa -- while Santos smashed his one over the bar, Amiri hit the post much to the frustration of home fans who were simply fantastic for full 120 minutes in supporting their team.
Meanwhile, for ATK -- Josemi, Mohammed Rafi, Jofre and Borja all took their respective penalties to send them to the inaugural final.
The first half started with fanatic pace as it saw the visitors winning the first free kick of the match inside 30 seconds but Josemi's free kick was well over the bar that was sarcastically greeted by 20 thousand home supporters after which it was FC Goa all around.
FC Goa then dominated the next five to seven minutes with brilliant interchange of passes between the midfielders and the strikers. The first real chance of the match went to the home team as Andre Santos was at the mix of things whose misplaced shot did not quite go where it was intended.
The home team surely had more fire in their belly in the opening quarter of the match as ATK defence was caught napping way too often but Goa kept giving away possession in the final third. Against the run of play -- Kolkata got a decent chance as they showed the home fans that they cannot be ignored, thanks to some good counter-attacking football but Sanju's shot was blazed just over the bar.
With crowd continuously cheering the home team -- FC Goa players grew in confidence and another brilliant chance went their way in the 20th minute when Slepicka provided a delightful cross into the box to Gregory but his shot was superbly saved by ATK goalie Edel, much to the frustration of the home crowd and coach Zico.
As the first half passed by, Goa kept on dominating possession but the strikers were not able to make the most of the chances. Bikramjit and Santos both added to Goa's wastefulness in the 27th and 30th minute respectively.
Goa were forced to do a substitution in the 44th minute as Peter Carvalho did his hamstring and was replaced by J Raja. The first half ended in the same fashion as it started. ATK's free kick failed to worry the Goa keeper and the teams went into the break at 0-0.
Goa started the second half in similar fashion as they got the first opportunity of the half in the 47th minute with Romeo again being denied by some good goalkeeping. The home side were denied penalty in the 55th minute when Andre Santos was brought down in the box by Arnab and replays confirmed that it was a clear cut penalty.
Kolkata were forced to make their substitution in the 60th minute of the match with star player Luis Garcia being forced out due to hamstring injury. However, he had a bad game tonight without a doubt.
Santos almost broke the deadlock in the 68th minute but was again denied by some heroic goalkeeping by Kolkata goalie. The Brazilian took the shot but it forced a fantastic save out of Edel at the near post with the ball rolling there from near the goal-line.
As the final whistle in the normal time closed in, both the sides were catering along and were sitting deep -- not taking too much of a risk and was content with the match going in to extra time. However, the home team tried their bit to score in the closing stages but of no use as the match went into extra time with 180 minutes of both the legs being played goalless.
Both the sides literally played both quarters of extra time at snails pace with the conditions and humidity clearly sapping all the energy out of them. Not much was created and both teams were happy to take this tie into penalties.
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