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Minerva Punjab FC took the Punjab Super League title home after a thrilling finale against Punjab Police, a match that went deep into the penalties.
Minerva Punjab FC started the match with one goal in their mind, i:e defend the title. But Punjab Police had something else in their mind and they started giving their all to spoil the mood in the warriors dugout and they scored an early goal in just 5th minute of the game. Punjab Police started dominating the game and got another goal up their rank after just seven minutes.
Minerva Punjab FC teamed up and started taking the game to the opponents, as a result, Girik pulled one back for the warriors as he caught the goalkeeper napping. Inside the first 20 minutes, there were 3 goals out of which 2 were in favor of Punjab Police. The warriors started using the flanks and a flurry of chances but couldn’t find the equalizer as the 1st half action came to an end.
A highly motivated Minerva Punjab FC squad kicked off the second half as they started attacking from the first minute of the second half. The warriors knew they got a job to do and they started showing the true spirit of the champions with each passing move. A nice one-two between the upfront players of Minerva inside the Punjab Police penalty area, as the ball ended up inside the opposition net, courtesy to Dicka’s low shot in the 70th minute of the game. The warriors tried hard to find a winner inside the normal time but the game ended all square.
Punjab Police started the proceedings in the first half of the extra time and they were on the back foot as they started defending from the beginning and got a free kick in the last seconds but the referee blew the whistle to end the half. Minerva Punjab FC kicked off the 2nd half of extra time and went on searching for a goal that would eventually win them the game, but couldn’t find none and the game went to penalties.
The penalty shootout began as Punjab Police drew the first blood but Himanshu canceled it. Goalkeeper Bhaskar Roy stood up to the task as he saved the second penalty taken by the Punjab Police player. After that, both teams converted all their chances from the spot as Minerva Punjab FC eventually came out as Champions.
With this first silverware of the season, Minerva Punjab FC will look forward to a solid I-League campaign which is starting in a month’s time and will look forward to repeating the story of the glorious 2017-18 season.
