Hosts Sahara FC of Pokhara stunned title contenders Tribhuvan Army Club 4-3 in tiebreaker to enter the final of the 15th Aaha-Rara Gold Cup on Wednesday.

The first semi-final match at the Pokhara Stadium had to be decided through spot kick after both teams failed to score in the normal 90 minutes and 30 minutes of extra time. Susan Gurung, Shiva Subedi, Pradeep Gurung and skipper Uttam Gurung struck from the spot for Sahara, while TAC keeper Bikesh Kuthu denied Laxman GC.

Jitendra Karki, Santosh Tamang and Dip Kumar Lama were on target for TAC, who saw Deepak Gurung’s shot sail away from the post,while Sahara goalkeeper Shojit Gurung blocked the shot from Kuthu. Sahara will now take on the winners of Thursday’s second semi-final match between Manang Marshyangdi Club  and Sankata in the final.

Sahara were reduced to 10 man in the 119th minute after Bobby Ogolla Odongo was shown a straight red card for a foul on TAC’s Bharat Khawas. 

Sahara had eliminated TAC 4-2 in the semi-finals of the 11th edition, while the Armymen had their revenge last year following a 2-0 win, also in the last four. Sahara are the champions of the 12th edition.

On Wednesday, Sahara took to the field with plan and that worked when TAC’s striking duo of Khawas and Nawayug Shrestha were tied up by the defenders and were denied by goalkeeper Gurung several times. TAC goalkeeper Kuthu also had shots from Subedi, Bobby and Richard Pun foiled.

TAC coach Nabin Neupane was left ruing the missed opportunities. “We squandered quite a lot of goal scoring chances. The opponents had also defended strongly and that put us on the back foot in the game,” said Neupane. 

Sahara coach Kiran Shrestha said the plan worked for him. “We knew that Army players were comparatively stronger and their attacking line was quite good. We made our plans to stop them and win in tiebreaker was a mission accomplished for us,” said Shrestha