At a jampacked Maulana Bhashani National Hockey Stadium, Acme Chattogram beat Monarch Padma in a thrilling final to win the first-ever title of the Hockey Champions Trophy.
In a match where fate swung like a pendulum, Chattogram held their nerves in the tie-breaker to win it 4-3 after the match ended 2-2 in normal time.
While all four of Chattogram’s penalty takers scored, Naim Uddin and Krishna Kumar missed the last two penalties for the Padma to lose the title after their first three takers scored.
Chattogram had finished the league stage as the table toppers and won the first qualifier to reach the final. On the other end, Padma qualified following winning the eliminator and the second qualifier.
Chattogram dominated the game from the start, but they managed to create only one clear chance in the first quarter through Indian recruit Devindar Walmiki, whose shot was saved by Padma goalkeeper Md Azim.
Padma took advantage of Chattogram’s failure to find the net in the final minute of the first corner as they received the first penalty corner of the match.
Rashel Mahmud Jimmy put the ball in, which Imran controlled, and Padma’s Japanese recruit Tanimitsu gave them a lead in the final.
Chattogram continued their dominance in the second quarter, but they once again missed opportunities as Azim came up with several good stops for Padma.
Finally, Chattogram managed to equalize in the 12th minute of the third quarter when a brilliant team play found Dutch forward Bjorn Kellerman in the shooting area, and he played a clever pass to Arshad Hossain, who was free at the far post and brought Chattogram level.
But Padma regained their lead in the final minute of the third quarter as a cross from Krishna was expertly finished by Saif Khan.
In the final quarter, Chattogram seemed down and out as they were making several mistakes, but in the penultimate minute, a cross from the right wing, which was not attacked by any defender found Arshad free again at the far post, who coolly finished to brought them level again.
In the final minute, Chattogram got a penalty corner, but Devindar’s shot from that was blocked by defender Imran’s foot on the line, which was initially given as a penalty stroke, but the video referee decided that it was a penalty corner.
That led to the Chattogram players leaving the field for a few minutes, but they came back for the last 42 seconds of action, where Padma got a penalty corner, but failed to make use of it, which resulted in the game progressing to tie-breakers.
