In the 42nd minute, Bagan’s dependable Dipanda Dicka gave the Kolkata side the lead. Akhram latched onto a Nikhil Kadam header over Harmanjot Khabra on the left of the Bengaluru box. He put in a left-footed grounder across which went past two Bengaluru defenders and Gurpreet to find Dicka, who tapped in with his left foot.

Bengaluru ended the half with two bookings as well. Chhetri had earlier been booked for a challenge in the 38th minute and just before the half-time whistle, Harmanjot Khabra was also booked for a rough tackle. BFC suffered another jolt in the 50th minute when a long clearance found Nikhil Kadam in the clear inside the Bengaluru half with only Gurpreet to beat. But his run was halted by Nishu Kumar who fouled him from behind and was promptly red-carded.

That seemed to have urged Bengaluru on more than Mohun Bagan and in the 62nd minute Miku equalised, and then went on to complete his hat-trick to seal the game for Bengaluru. The first was a clinical finish off an Udanta cut-in from the right. The second in the 65th minute was an intelligent quickly taken free-kick, initiated outside the Bagan box by Miku himself and cheekily supported by Toni, which also saw a cool finish from the Venezuelan. The third was off a penalty in the 89th minute when Rana Gharami brought Udanta down inside the box.

Chhetri completed the rout in the 90th minute when he followed Gurpreet Singh Sandhu’s long-kick, cut past his marker and pulled up delightful curler from outside the top-right corner of the Bagan box which beat a diving Shilton Paul.Dicka did get one back in added time but it was too late by then. Miku was rightly adjudged the man of the match and he was handed over a cash prize of Rs 25,000 by Rajya Sabha Member Dr Achyuta Samanta.
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TOP: Nicolas Fedor receives the man of the 2nd semifinal match prize from Rajya Sabha Member Dr Achyuta Samanta in Bhubaneswar on April 17, 2018.
RIGHT: India captain Sunil Chhetri and Bengaluru FC teammate Nicolas Fedor pose with a TV anchor after their semifinal win over Mohun Bagan in Bhubaneswar on April 17, 2018.