Machindra Football, Kathmandu has won the eighth edition of Birat Gold Cup. Machindra won the title by defeating the home team Sangrila Morang FA 2-0 in the final which was held at Shahid Maidan in Biratnagar.
Machindra has created history by becoming the new champion of the Virat Gold Cup. Machindra, the runner-up of Shahid Smarak A Division League, has managed to win three out of seven gold cups that have participated in this season. Earlier, KP Oli Cup and Bagmati Gold Cup titles have been won.
Chhiring Gurung and Hisub Thapalia scored to make Machindra the champion. They scored both goals in extra time. 30 minutes of extra time was added after the game was tied without a goal in the scheduled 90 minutes.
Taking advantage of the weakness of Sangrila's goalkeeper Bishal Sunar in extra time, Chhiring Gurung of Machchindra scored a goal to give the team the lead in the 113th minute. Sangrila's goalkeeper Vishal Sunar could not clear the ball by punching the corner hit by Hisub Thapalia. After that, Chiring headed the rebounded ball and took the lead. In the 119th minute, after 6 minutes of Machchindra taking the lead, Hisub Thapalia hit the ball from a long distance and took the direction of the post.
Sangrila could not take advantage of the opportunities in the game. Sangrila's hard shot from 30 yards in the 25th minute was brilliantly saved by Machindra's goalkeeper Bishal Shrestha. In the 35th minute, Sangrial's Sushil Rai wasted the opportunity to score. In the 42nd minute, Machindra's foreign player Stepin failed to score a one-on-one shot. His shot bounced off the poster.
In the 43rd minute, Machindra's Ayush Ghalan's shot from the penalty area missed the target. The opportunity to score in the first half was wasted when his hard shot went wide. The game ended in a scoreless draw until the first half. In the 54th minute, Bikek Poudel of Sangrila took a pass from the center and Sushil Rai's shot from inside the box went over the bar. In the 83rd minute, Stephin Winong's shot from inside the box was blocked by Sangreal's goalkeeper Bisal Sunar.
After the defeat, the coach of Sangrila Morang, Ranu Rana Magar, said that the goal was conceded at the last moment when the players were injured. "After Morang's captain Abhishek Limbu was out, the defense line became thin," he said, "due to which we had to suffer a defeat." Sangrila's captain Abhishek Limbu said, "Machchindra is a strong team." Even though we tried our best, we had to lose.
Along with the title, Machindra received a cash prize of 11 lakh rupees. The home team Sangrila, who became the runners-up, settled for 5,500,00 rupees.
Machindra's Laken Limbu was declared the player of the match in the final match. He got 11 thousand. In other categories, Bishal Shrestha from Machchindra, Santosh Neupane from Machchindra and Stefan from Machchindra were declared the best goal keeper. They each got a prize of 21 thousand rupees. Mahendra Karki of Sangrila was declared the best player. He received the motorcycle award.
Koshi Chief Minister Kedar Karki, President of All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) Pankaj Bikram Nembang, President of Birat Gold Cup Trust Kishore Shahi distributed prizes to the winning players.
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