Harwood Champions League | 'Crowd was rooting for us, so that helped': ICL coach Bimal Ghosh

The ICL players celebrate with their Harwood Champions League winner’s trophy at Cooperage on Saturday night

Riding on custodian Arup Debnath's heroics under the bar, ICL beat Reliance FYC (RFYC) 6-5 in a thrilling tie-breaker to clinch the Harwood Champions League title at the Cooperage on Saturday night. Zehal Shibu got the lead for RFYC through a brilliant strike into the right side of the goal in the 21st minute for a 1-0 lead at half-time. After the break, Ronik Singh equalised for ICL in the 88th minute as the RFYC defence fumbled in the penalty box and failed to clear the ball.

In the tie-breaker, Debnathmade two crucial saves, one of which saw him smartly dive to his right and punch away Ansh Tembulkar's attempt. With both teams locked at 5-5 after the first five kicks, in sudden death, he then warded off Arin Deshmukh's shot. Abhiav Pandsey netted the winner for ICL. Lalit H, Ronik, Zeeshan Akhtar, Bless Vashum and Abhiav were on target for ICL. While Rajkumar Sanyasi, Karan Failha, Ayush Digal and F Vanlal netted for RFYC.

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"In football, you don't always get what you deserve. We started very well, controlled the first half completely. Our second half was extremely good. In the last 20 minutes, the game got physical. I think we really did well. The most important thing is the development within us," said RFYC coach Robert Loelofsn. ICL coach and manager Bimal Ghosh said, "Really appreciate RFYC. They held us for a long period. Tie-breaker is anyone's game. With the crowd rooting for us, I think that's where we won it."