2002–03 IFA Shield final

The 2002–03 IFA Shield Final was the 108th final of the IFA Shield, the second oldest football competition in India, and was contested between Kolkata giants East Bengal and Churchill Brothers of Goa on 22 January 2003.

2002–03 IFA Shield Final

Event	2002-03 IFA Shield
East Bengal Churchill Brothers 0 0
East Bengal won 5–4 on penalties
Date	22 January 2003
Venue	Salt Lake Stadium, Kolkata, West Bengal
Man of the Match	Sangram Mukherjee[1]
Referee	Bharat Mani (Karnataka)[2]
Attendance	40,000 (approx.)
← 2001 2003 →

East Bengal won the final 5–4 via penalties after the game remained goal-less after extra-time, to claim their 27th IFA Shield title.^[2]

Route to the final

See also: IFA Shield

East Bengal

Date	Round	Opposition	Score
13 January 2003	Group Stage	Indian Bank	2–1
15 January 2003	Group Stage	Churchill Brothers	0–1
17 January 2003	Group Stage	Tollygunge Agragami	2–1
19 January 2003	Semi Final	Vasco	2–0

East Bengal entered the 2002-03 IFA Shield as the defending champions and were allocated into Group A alongside Indian Bank, Churchill Brothers and Tollygunge Agragami. In the opening game against Indian Bank, East Bengal won 2–1 with goals from Tushar Rakshit and Amjad Ali Khan. Joseph scored the only goal for Indian Bank.^[3] In the second game, East Bengal faced a setback as they lost 0–1 against Churchill Brothers with Aqueel Ansari scoring the only goal for the goan side in the 83rd minute.^[4] In the last group game against Tollygunge Agragami, East Bengal won 2–1 with goals from Trijit Das and Suley Musah as they secured their place in the semi-finals.^[5] In the Semi-Final, East Bengal defeated Vasco 2–0 with goals from Suley Musah and Jiten Rai as they entered the final.^[6]

Churchill Brothers

Date	Round	Opposition	Score
11 January 2003	Group Stage	Indian Bank	0–0
13 January 2003	Group Stage	Tollygunge Agragami	1–1
15 January 2003	Group Stage	East Bengal	1–0
19 January 2003	Semi Final	TFA	3–2

Churchill Brothers entered the 2002-03 IFA Shield as one of the NFL teams and were allocated into Group A alongside Indian Bank, East Bengal and Tollygunge Agragami. In the opening game against Indian Bank, Churchill Brothers drew 0–0. In their second game against Tollygunge Agragami, Churchill failed to win again as they drew 1–1 with Kasif Jamal scoring the Churchill but Mehtab Hossain equalised for Tollygunge. In their last group game, Churchill Brothers stunned the defending champions East Bengal as they won 1–0 with Aqueel Ansari scoring the only goal of the match as they reached the semis.^[4] In the Semi-Finals, Churchill Brothers defeated Tata Football Academy 3—2 in a thriller of a game. Kasif Jamal, Yusif Yakubu and Ratan Singh scored for Churchill Brothers while Bhola Prasad and Debadrata Roy scored for TFA.^[6]

Match

Details

East Bengal	0–0 (a.e.t.)	Churchill Brothers
	Report
Penalties
Suley Musah Chandan Das Kalia Kulothungan Kaustav Ghosh Douglas Silva Shasthi Duley	5–4	Kasif Jamal Rajesh Meetei Noel Wilson Yusif Yakubu Roque Barreto Tiken Singh

22 January 2003

14:30 IST

Salt Lake Stadium, Kolkata

Attendance: 40,000 (est.)

Referee: Bharat Mani (Karnataka)

East Bengal

Churchill Brothers

GK Sangram Mukherjee RB Amjad Ali Khan CB Suley Musah (c) CB Douglas Silva LB Subhashish Roy Chowdhury  72' RM Sankarlal Chakraborty CM Arun Malhotra CM Shasthi Duley LM Jiten Rai  92' ST Chandan Das ST Trijit Das  108' Substitutes: MF Soumitra Chakraborty  72' MF Kalia Kulothungan  92' DF Kaustav Ghosh  108' Manager: Subhash Bhowmick

GK Edward Ansah RB Denzie Ferrao CB Pio Rodrigues CB Noel Wilson LB Zaheer Abbas  92' LM Roque Barreto CM Aqueel Ansari CM Kanta Singh  70' RM Kasif Jamal ST Rajesh Meetei ST Yusif Yakubu (c) Substitutes: MF Ratan Singh  70' FW Tiken Singh  92' Manager: Marcos Pacheco

Hero of the Match: Sangram Mukherjee (East Bengal)[2]

Match rules 90 minutes. 30 minutes of extra time if necessary. Penalty shoot-out if scores still level.

See also

• IFA Shield 2002-03, rsssf.com
• IFA Shield 2002-03, indianfootball.de