NorthEast United FC’s Saransh Jain and Emaad Jameel Ahmed won the second season of the eISL after defeating Bengaluru FC’s Sagnik Banerjee and Charanjot Singh 2-1 in the finals.
BFC got off to a fast start, winning Game 1 by a score of 4-1. They appeared to be on track to sweep the NEUFC duo in Game 2, which ended goalless and was followed by a protracted penalty shootout.
However, Emaad and Saransh kept their composure to win the shootout 8-7 and tie the game at 1-1 before moving on to the critical and final Game 3. It was a thrilling end-to-end battle that saw the scores knotted at 2-2 until NorthEast managed to sneak a goal past the Blues and then hang on to that small advantage right to the finish to win the eISL championship 2-1.
NorthEast has been the star performer this season, and their efforts leading up to the championship game on Sunday reflected that. In the semi-finals, they had defeated Kerala Blasters by an aggregate score of 4-1 over two legs. The Highlanders won the first leg 3-0 and then managed to sneak in another 2-1 win in Game 2 of the second leg to take an unassailable 4-1 lead and go to the competition’s finals.
In their semi-final match, Bengaluru’s Sagnik and Charanjot faced stiff challenge from FC Goa. Both legs of their last four showdown had gone down to the wire, with the Blues prevailing 2-1 each time to advance to the finals by a 4-2 score.
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