Brothers Union sent defending champions Arambagh KS packing from the Walton Independence Cup by handing a 4-3 defeat in shootout in a nerve-racking and eventful first quarterfinal at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday.
The win took the Gopibagh-based outfit into the semifinals of any tournament for the first time in nine years, with their previous last-four appearance had come way back in 2009 during the inaugural Super Cup. Arambagh KS, who were eliminated from the quarterfinals of the Federation Cup last month as well, faced an early exit despite twice taking the lead.
The match between the two lightweights was by far the best contest of the ongoing tournament as both sides displayed some entertaining football and scored spectacular goals and had one player each sent off.
The regulation and extra time ended in a 3-3 draw and first five shots each of tiebreak also failed to separate the sides before the match was decided in sudden death, with Brothers goalkeeper Sujan Chowdhury stopping Chinedu Mathew's sixth shot to send the Oranges into wild celebration.
Man-of-the-match Sujan had also stopped another shot from Arambagh captain Rabiul Hasanduring shootout after having made some excellent saves during regulation and extra time, keeping his side in the match after Jack Daniels of Panama was sent off in the 78th minute for a second bookable offence soon after giving Brothers a 3-2 lead. Two minutes from time, Arambagh's substitute striker Sarwar Zaman Nipu was sent off following an off-lhe-ball offence.
Coming from a morale-boosting 3-1 win over Saif SC in the last group-stage match, Arambagh started the quarterfinal strongly and took the lead in the 12th minute, with Rabiul firing home from close range but Brothers hit back in the 43rd minute, thanks to a header
from Brazilian Lima Leonardo.
Arambagh kept their dominance to restore the lead with a spectacular left-footed drive from Rabiul nine minutes after restart, but the lead last only 13 minutes as Mannaf Rabbi volleyed home brilliantly after Shafiqul Islam had put a perfect cross from the left flank.
Brothers then stunned Arambagh to take the lead from a counter-attack, with Daniels scoring from outside the box and the striker pulled off his jersey to celebrate the goal. His joy, though, turned into grief as he was booked for a second bookable offence and was sent off.
With one player short, Brothers held the lead for only eight minutes
before Paul Emile, who scored a hat-trick in Arambagh's previous match, headed his side level to take the game into extra time.
"We took the match very seriously as the boys spent almost sleepless nights over the last three days, thinking of the match against the champions. Despite the sending off, I was confident that we would win the match as we had a spirit and the boys fought really hard," said Brothers' Indian coach Syed Nayeem Uddin.
Arambagh coach Marful Haque blamed his players' complacency, inexperience and immaturity for the defeats as his charges failed to cash in despite producing a lot of scoring chances.