Abahani emerged champions of the season’s curtain-raising Grameenphone Federation Cup when they beat Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club 5-3 after extra-time in a thrilling encounter at the Birshreshtha Mostafa Kamal Stadium yesterday.
Abahani rode on their Ghanaian contingent with striker Awudu Ibrahim leading the way with a superb hattrick as the Sky Blues triumphed over a ten-man Sheikh Jamal after the regulation period had ended in an enthralling 3-3 tie. Yussif Aminu and Twum Frank were the other scorers for the winners.
The full-house at Kamalapur was treated to an end-to-end encounter in a dramatic game punctuated at regular intervals with well-taken goals.
Abahani were behind twice to national striker Enamul Haque, but fought back both times and even managed to take the lead, and what seemed like the match, in the 80th minute.
But Sheikh Jamal escaped from the death and took the game to extra-time courtesy of a sublime long-range strike from Mamunul Islam.
But in extra-time Sheikh Jamal showed their relative inexperience and pushed the self-destruct button as defender Rezaul got himself sent off in foolish circumstances.
That was the cue for Abahani to take the game to their opponents, and the giants used all their big game experience to pressurise Sheikh Jamal into submission with two more late goals.
In the end it was a deserved victory and marked an eighth Federation Cup trophy for Abahani and the end of a ten-year dry spell for the trophy.
