Striker Felix Ibrebru missed twice from the spot as defending champions Salgaocar went down 4-5 on penalties to Mohun Bagan in the first semifinal of the Durand Cup football tournament in New Delhi on Sunday.
Ibrebru first missed a controversial penalty in the 70th minute of the match and then again messed up the last penalty kick in the tie-breaker after the two teams were locked goalless during the regulation time and 30 minutes extra time.
Substitute Zehry Jirsanga, Mehtab Hossain, Sunil Chetri, Dulal Biswas and Dharamjit Singh converted the spot kicks for Bagan while Bello Razaq, Jothi Kumar, Fredy Mascarenhas and Samson Singh (both substitutes) scored for Salgaocar.
It was an exciting battle at the Ambedkar Stadium between the Goans and Bagan, bolstered by the return of Tomba Singh and Jirsanga to make up for the absence of Brazilian Eduwardo Chacun, who had to sit out after picking up two yellow cards.
Both Salgaocar and Bagan messed up a number of chances but the Kolkatans attacked with more vigour after the introduction of Tomba, who did national duty other day in Kuwait, in the 36th minute.
The exciting tempo continued after the change of ends with the two African strikers Felix and Bagan's James going close to opening their account.
In the 68th minute Salgaocar forced a corner and the flag kick was flicked on by Felix to Bello. The Salgaocar skipper went up in the air but missed the ball and came tumbling down. Referee Ashokan was in perfect position and he pointed to the spot ruling that one of the Bagan players had pushed Bello.
The Bagan players just could not digest a penalty at this late stage and led by goalkeeper Subrata Pal chased the referee who had to run back to the half-line before the linesmen came to his rescue and helped him out of the protesting Kolkatans.
The maroon and green brigade also had the support of nearly 10,000 supporters as they booed and hurled abuses at the match officials.
Felix managed to fire his shot straight at the 'keeper and the moment the shot was saved, the entire Bagan team including the bench and the partisan supporters vented all their anger at the referee, who had to stop the match for a few minutes to allow the tempers to calm down.
The beginning of the extra time saw Mehtab darting down the right flank and unleash a shot on the run, which went inches wide.
The next moment, Salgaocar were down to 10 men after medio Micky Fernandes came up with a hard tackle on Bagan's star player Tomba.
The Manipur player went down with a thud and the Bagan players, led by local boy Chetri, charged down to the Goan. With the crowd roaring for a red card, the referee ejected the Goan leaving Salgoacar to battle out the remaining 28 minutes.
Bagan had earlier introduced Zehry in place of James and Salgoacar brought in Samson Singh looking for the all-important goal.
But the Kolkatans failed to take advantage of their numerical superiority as the Salgaocar defenders Razaq, Roberto Fernandez and Bento Vaz did a tremendous job to thwart Bagan's attacks.
