Riding on Yusif Yakubu's fine first-half brace Mahindra United outclassed and outplayed their South African counterpart Santos FC, settling scores of their 0-2 tournament opener loss from the hands of foreign side, with a convincing 3-1 scoreline in the final of the 113th IFA Shield tournament played at the Vidyasagar Stadium in Barasat here on Friday.
Yakubu came up with a brace in the first half while substitute Sushil Kumar Singh rounded off the tally with his first goal of the tournament three minutes before the final whistle to keep the IFA Shield trophy in the country.
The combination of Yusif Yakubu and Doughou Piere was all that made the difference in the decisive final. The Mumbai outfit got off the blocks quite fast in quest of their title defence. Yakubu combined well with Doughou Piere at upfront and the menacing combination of the duo scripted first two Mahindra’s goals in just 15 minutes of the start of the play.
Mahindra got into early lead in the ninth minute of the play through Yakubu. Doughou intercepted a clearance by Santos custodian Eduan Naude, played a one-two-one with Yakubu, and fed Yakubu a perfect square pass on the Santos goal mouth who made no mistake in chipping it over rival goalkeeper to make it 1-0.
Yakubu- Doughou combine came to the fore again six minutes later as the former slotting his second goal of the final in similar fashion. Yakubu received A Sushanth Matthew through pass on the edge of the box and the Ghanaian forward rapidly exchanged the ball with Pierre before settling it inside the net with a deft chip dodging past rival custodian, who came out of his line to challenge him. The winners led 2-0 till half-time
On changing the ends, Santos put up a spirited fightback, reducing the margin through Gregory Roelf, but Mahindra United held on to their lead, after surviving some anxious moments early on in the latter half.
Roelf showed his class two minutes into the second session when he headed home a Leon Godloza’s free kick for Santos to make it 2-1.
Amending his previous mistakes of taking the defence lightly, Mahindra coach Derrick Pereira adopted a different ploy in the finals as he positioned lanky Harpreet Singh as a sweeper ahead of their regular defence line-up to annihilate Santos forwards attack.
Mahindra United gave the final denting blow in the 87th minute to seal the fate of their foreign opponents through substitute Sushil Kumar Singh, reading the final scoreline 3-1.
TEAMS
Mahindra United (INDIA): Subhasish Roy Chowdhury; Harpreet Singh, Sushanth Mathew, N.P. Pradeep, Bello Rassaq; Steven Dias (Thoi Singh 90+2), Doughou Pierre, Sukhwinder Singh, Mohammad Rafi, Yusif Yakubu, Manjit Singh (Sushil Kumar Singh 85).
Santos FC (SOUTH AFRICA): Eduan Naude; Leon Godloza, Jean Farrugia, Kristopher Bergman, Elton Swartz; Danny Bowers (Ruzaigh Gamildien 53), Ayanda Maqasha (Jarren Moultrie 76), Joswin Hendricks, Gregory Roelf (Zuroog Daniels 81); Tasleem Paulse, Clifton Davids.
Referee: A. Arjunan (Services). Man of the Match: Doughou Pierre.
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