MSC-Abahani final

Dhaka Mohammedan goalkeeper Aminul dives to his right to save a penalty from Chittagong Mohammedan's Nasir (not in picture) during the tiebreakers in yesterday's semifinal of the Citycell Super Cup at the Bangabandhu National Stadium.Photo: STAR

Aminul Haque's three heroic saves in the penalty shootout booked Dhaka Mohammedan's place against archrivals Abahani in Friday's final in the Citycell Super Cup despite their 1-0 loss to Chittagong Mohammedan yesterday.
A 79th minute goal by substitute Akbar Hossain Ridon gave the visitors a solitary goal win in the second leg of the second semifinal at the Bangabandhu National Stadium as the battle entered extra period after a 1-1 aggregate in the two-leg semis.
Both sides failed to score in the next 30 minutes and the trend continued in the tiebreakers as Dhaka Mohammedan won 3-2 after the first five attempts from the semifinalists went down the drains.
National number one goalkeeper Aminul dived both ways to parry spotkicks by Chittagong skipper Camara, Nasir and Pavel while Nigerian duo John Godwin and Dami Emmanuelle failed to hit the mark for the local side.
Godwin shot wide while Emmanuelle was denied by Mamun at the Chittagong goal as the crowd began to feel the heat of a nerve wrecking shootout.
However, Maruf, Sharif and Hazem Mahmud, the Egyptian midfielder who took the final shot of the match, scored to keep the Dhaka giants' dream to win the Tk one-crore championship prize.
Raphael and Shawkat finally beat Aminul but that was not enough for Nazrul Islam Ledu's side to break the monopoly of the teams from the capital.
The port city side, who got the black and white strip, needed a two-goal win to qualify for the final directly and dominated the show. Liberian midfielder Doe came close after 15 minutes but his powerful drive was blocked by Emmanuelle inside the area. Touhid reached the rebound quickly but his effort sailed over the Mohammedan bar.
Maruful Haque's side -- missing their key striker and B. league's top scorer Alamu Bukola of Nigeria due to fever --were unfortunate as Hazem's left-footed freekick bounced off the crossbar in the 40th minute, just before Aminul pulled off a top-class save from Nasir, the Army striker who had raced past two defenders to rifle a left-footer from 15 yards.
Dhaka Mohammedan survived a white tide after the resumption when their leftback Ripon failed to stop a barrage of attacks down the flank.
Guinean striker Raphael miskicked a chance from close and forced a fine save by Aminul after Nasir did the hard works.
Defender Shawkat threatened to score from a corner but Aminul, who was slightly out of his line, palmed away the header before substitute Ridon got behind the Dhaka custodian chasing Camara's cross, only to toe-poke the ball over.
Dhaka Mohammedan who were playing in their second choice green shirt, got one half chance when Robin cut a low cross from right but Mamun dived to stop the ball from reaching Godwin.
The deadlock was finally broken by Ridon, who scored 12 minutes after replacing Doe. Pavel chipped cross from the right above the last rival defender and Ridon, who was Aminul yards out of his line, drove a left-footer from the edge of the area into the top left corner.
Chittagong Mohammedan wasted a golden chance to seal a place in the final in the 111th minute when Raphael unsettled the local defence but Camara, who met the cross seven yards out of goal, stabbed the header just wide.
Shootout hero Aminul said after the match that he has always played for the team.
"This is the first time I have saved three consecutive penalties but I am always confident during shootouts. It's a habit from my childhood," said Aminul.
"We had some problems in the combination due to injuries but hope to return to the final in full strength."
"We were 100 percent positive today," said coach Maruful adding that they have showed improvement in the tournament.
"Our rivals played better than us today and got a goal from counter attacks. It happened because we attacked and were not looking forward to hold on to our 1-0 lead from the first leg match," Maruful said.
"Aminul was excellent today and has been in great form throughout the tournament."
Port city coach Nazrul Islam said that luck was not with them.
"We gave our best and after winning 1-0 in the 90 minutes, out target to take the match into penalties was fulfilled. But the players changed their decisions during the shootout," Nazrul informed.
"I specifically told them where to shoot against a class goalkeeper like Aminul but they changed their minds. We lost to Aminul, not to Mohammedan.
"We started without our injured captain Kaiser but the players never let me feel that. I am happy the way they tormented a great team today. We came here to surprise and we just did that.
"We conceded a late goal in the first leg due to a mistake and had that not happened, we would have played in the final," added Nazrul, whose side will meet Brothers Union in the third-place play-off also on Friday.
Yellow cards: Rajani, Kamal (Dhaka Mohammedan) and Shawkat, Touhid (Chittagong Mohammedan)
TEAMS
DHAKA MOHAMMEDAN: Aminul, Hassan Al Mamun, Rajani, Emmanuelle, Ripon (Kamal, 56th), Nasir, Arman Aziz (Maruf, 66th), Sharif, Hazem, Goodwin and Robin (Komol, 64th).
CTG MOHAMMEDAN: Mamun, Sharif, Pradip, Shawkat, Lincoln (Sanwar, 85th), Touhid (Pavel, 75th), Doe (Ridon, 71st), Camara, Mousa, Raphael and Nasir.
Referee: Abdur Rahman (Qatar)