Peninsula Pune FC Academy suffered shootout heartbreak going down 5-6 to Gadhinglaj United in the tie-breaker of the quarterfinal clash in the 11th Gadhinglaj United Cup All India Football Tournament 2015 in Gadhinglaj, Kolhapur on Thursday.
The PPFCA team, consisting majorly of the Club’s Under-17 players, put up a great show despite arriving just hours before the kick off after a long road trip from Pune.
The game began with PPFCA dominating proceedings early on. After constantly attacking the rival goal, PPFCA broke the deadlock in the 15th minute. Balkar Singh set on a good run down the flank after some good interplay in the midfield, and attempted from range. While the shot was blocked, Kiran Sarvanan managed to slot home from close on the rebound and give PPFCA the lead.
The hosts managed to equalise in the 24th minute against the run of play capitalising on a defensive error as the first half ended 1-1.
The second half saw some high intensity football with both sides creating chances aplenty. However, failure to convert in the final third meant the game headed into the dreaded penalty shootout.
In the tie-breaker, PPFCA managed to convert four through Kiran Saravanan, Harsharan Khabra, Balkar Singh and Tapas Pal. Meanwhile, Pratik Badame’s miss proved costly as Gadhinglaj United converted all their spot kicks to seal a 5-4 win in the shootout.
