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An entertaining day of football at Jalgaon today as both the semifinal matches were decided on Penalty shootout. Hard Luck for Gondia and Kolhapur as their journey ends Buldhana and Pune to face each other in the final
Semi-final 1: Pune 0(3) – 0(0) Kolhapur
(Pune won in Penalty)
First semifinal was played between Pune and Kolhapur. Both teams started off brightly and it was Pune who had the first good opportunity in the very 1st minute of the game that could have turned danger for Kolhapur. However Kolhapur GK ensured there was no goals early in the game.
Pune’s attacking strategy put the pressure on Kolhapur that led them to concede couple of fouls which could have turned dangerous had it not been for some impressively saves by Kolhapur’s goalkeeper. The first half ended without any side breaking the deadlock.
Second half started brightly for Kolhapur who came out with attacking mentality with continuous forward movements. However, Pune goalkeeper Anjali was up to the task succeeding to save multiple attacks.
In 48th minute Shweta Borude from Pune was given yellow card. Despite extra minutes neither side managed to break the deadlocks.
And the game entered in the penalty shootout. Where Pune’s goalkeeper Anjali Barke saved 3 back to back shots and helped Pune to enter Finals with 3-0 win in penalty.
Semi final 2: Buldhana 0(4)-0(3) Gondia
(Buldhana won in Penalty)
The second semifinal game was played between Buldhana and Gondia. Both teams were good in defense. After a humdinger of 1st semi final the 2nd one had been tad cagey affair as neither side had threatened the goal enough before first half. Gondia started the second half with few attacking moves and in 42nd minute, they earned a free kick in dangerous position but nothing came out of it as they failed to break the deadlock. There was couple of yellow card shown for Buldhana players – Aishwarya Bhonde and Priti Khare. By the time, full time whistle was blown; none of the sides could find the net as the game entered for Penalty shootout.
During Penalty Shootouts, Both Buldhana and Gondia missed two opportunities to extend the shootout to sudden death where Gondia miss their attempt and Buldhana converted theirs to setup title clash with Pune.
