Abahani Beat Mohammedan to Reach Final

Abahani buried a wretched start to the Protiti Pharma Victory Day Club Cup when they knocked out arch rivals Mohammedan Sporting Club yesterday to reach the final of the year's first tournament.

Mehdi Hassan Ujjal's sublime second-half goal helped the sky-blues edge tournament hosts Mohammedan 1-0 in the second semifinal before a 15,000-strong holiday crowd at the Bangabandhu National Stadium to set a clash against Arambagh in tomorrow's final.

The two sides had met in one final previously, in the Federation Cup in 2000, with Abahani winning the title.

Amalesh Sen's B. League champions Abahani, who lost 1-0 to Senior Division side Badda Jagarani in the tournament opener but won the rest of the group games in style, started brightly despite missing key striker Emily and attacking midfielder Abul, both suspended following two bookings each.

On the other hand, the black and whites who came to the game on the back of a controversial group match against Arambagh, hardly impressed with five guest players in the starting lineup.

Dubbed 'unsporting' by the tournament committee, Mohammedan's 3-1 victory against Arambagh was scratched and both the teams were punished.

And Shafiqul Islam Manik's boys, probably the most inexperienced team fielded ever by the popular club, were lucky to survive a barrage of rival attacks in the first 45 minutes.

Abahani's guest striker Robin got plenty of chances to separate the two sides but his efforts in the 12 and 18 minutes went wide. Siraji fired a rebound just over Shakil's bar as Abahani began to get behind the five-man Mohammedan backline with almost every move.

Ujjal then sent a crossfield pass to Zahed Parvez at the right flank and the winger's low shot to the far post from ten yards, which certainly looked set to beat goalkeeper Shakil, was intercepted by centre-back and Mohammedan captain Biplab on the half hour.

With Abahani enjoying superior ball possession, Mohammedan midfielders were chasing shadows and whenever they won back the ball, miss passes marred their chances to go ahead.

Fullback Kamal, however, put Biplab to the test in the 37th minute but the Abahani custodian gripped a powerful centre in his second attempt, denying a lurking Charles Figo a shot at goal.

Figo threatened to score against run of play a couple of minutes later but his solo down the left was wasted as his low cross ran across the face of the goal harmlessly.

Abahani had two more chances in the rest of the entertaining first half but Shakil palmed away the ball off Tipu's feet on one on one while Ujjal and Zahed both failed to make most of the rebound.

Robin once again failed to utilise a through by skipper Joy when the youngster fired the ball wide of the far post on the brink of halftime.

Mohammedan made one change at the break but even before they settled, Ujjal struck a superb goal in the 50th minute.

The attacking midfielder himself initiated the move and was in the right position when Zahed drilled a square pass through a forest of legs from the right. Under pressure from two defenders, Ujjal chipped the ball over Shakil and into the net off the far post.

The Mohammedan defence was one man short at that moment as Jewel Rana was nursing a hamstring injury outside the pitch and the veteran guest defender played no more part in the game.

Shakil, another invited recruit, was graceful under pressure as he made a series of saves. Having denied low drives by Wali and Ujjal, the Mohammedan keeper parried a glancing header by Pranotosh to keep the side in the game. But substitute Arafat Rony failed to equalise in the 57th minute when he drove the ball straight to Biplab inside from the area.

Tipu should have scored on the hour but the veteran striker shot the ball onto Shakil after latching on a through by Wali.

Abahani had to remain satisfied with a slim win as man-of-the-match Ujjal, who was sent racing into the box by Nazrul's long overhead pass, saw his placing shot cleared by Ariful from the goalmouth after beating Shakil five minutes later.

Abahani's ultra defensive ploy afterwards and the decision to keep the tired forwards on the pitch gave Mohammedan the chance to go all out in the last 20 minutes but neither Farhad nor Figo managed to get the better of a solid Abahani defence.