Sikkim Aakraman Football Club has advanced into the semi-final round of the ongoing 38th All India Governor’s Gold Cup International Football Tournament 2018 at Paljor Stadium in Gangtok of Sikkim.
In a well contested third quarter-final match on Monday, the home team has made impressive come back to edge past ISL club, Bengaluru Football Club (Reserve) 4-3 in the extra-time.
Bengaluru FC made a good start with continuous attack on home side and the first breakthrough came with a goal by Roshan Singh in the 23rd minute.
By maintaining the same pressure on the opponent, Namgyal Bhutia soon doubled the lead of Bengaluru FC in the 27th minute.
In return, Sikkim Aakraman players played their hearts out to come back into the match and finally a goal by Eric in the 41st minute gave some relief to the home team.
Soon in the second half, Parag Shirvas has extended the lead of Bengaluru FC to 3-1 in the 53rd minute.
However, the home team players made a good come back with constant attacks on Bengaluru side and finally their hard work paid off with a goal by its substitute, Bijendra Rai in the 73rd minute and soon his teammate, Tempo Bhutia equalized the score in the 81st minute.
With no further goal, the full time of the match ended 3-3 draw and the match further extended for 20 minutes extra-time.
In the extra-time, players of both teams took each other neck-on-neck to take the lead.
In the 99th minute, Dawa Lepcha headed a free-kick shot of Don Tshering Lepcha into the winning goal for Sikkim Aakraman FC.
With this close 4-3 victory, Sikkim Aakraman FC has entered into the semi-final round of this tournament for the second time.
The last quarter-final match of the tournament will be played between Calcutta Customs and Manag Marsangdi Club, Nepal on Tuesday afternoon at 2 pm.