Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club reached the final of the Grameenphone Federation Cup with a luck-favoured 1-0 win over Muktijoddha at the Kamalapur stadium on Tuesday.
Sheikh Jamal will face Dhaka Abahani in the final on Saturday.
Muktijoddha wasted three clear chances while Sheikh Jamal scored in one of the two chances.
The lack-lustre first half saw both the teams concentrating more on not conceding goals rather than scoring one.
Sheikh Jamal’s attacking instinct hardly bothered the Muktijoddha defence marshalled by Rajani, Nigerian Emmaulle Dammi and Argentine defender Luciano Thieler. Sheikh Jamal continued to play in a counter-attacking style although it did not prove effective.
Muktijoddha was the livelier side with better ball possession and came close to a strike on more than one occasion in the first half. Their forwards Bukola and James Saeed Moga, however, appeared toothless.
Maruf, the midfield marshal of Muktijoddha, tested Aminul with a 20 yard scorcher but Aminul was in the right position to parry the ball away.
Sheikh Jamal’s lone chance came off a free kick in the 12th minute but Biplob dived to his left to grip the grounder initiated by midfielder Jahid.
Bukola blasted the ball over the crosspiece from the six yard box after Moga had paved a Titu cross from the edge of the box.
The second half, however, produced some attacking football but the show was marred by the missed opportunities. Ten minutes after the break, Muktijoddha was let down by Bukola. After Maruf’s floater bounced back to the game off the crosspiece Mithun’s shot was cleared by a Jamal defender. Bukola got the re-bounder but shot straight to Aminul.
Two minutes later Moga failed to break the deadlock when his goal-bound placing shot was headed to safety by Sheikh Jamal defender Rezaul Karim Reza. Bukola rounded off Aminul in the first bar before providing the square pass to Moga.
Muktijoddha started to show the sign of frustration often losing the possession as Sheikh Jamal hit back with a series of attacks. Substitute forward Sobuj had no clue what went wrong in the 72nd minute when his curved effort beat Muktijoddha goalie Biplob in the air but went wide off the side post.
Sobuj, however, amended his failure four minutes away from the time having a smooth sail to the Muktijoddha post as Rajani and Thieler hesitated to clear a Jahid through pass and Sobuj taking the control beat Biplob in the far post with an angular shot.
Zoran Kraljevic, the coach of Sheikh Jamal, was a relieved man. ‘The boys were determined to seal a victory and they did it. I still, however, think the best is yet to come out.’
Maruful Haque, the Muktijoddha coach, was realistic. ‘If you waste three scoring chances in a semifinal you cannot expect a win and it happened in the field. My people played well but all the efforts went in vain.’
