Football: Airtel Cup final - Ten-man St Michel win title in penalty shootout |26 September 2016
Ten-man St Michel had to come from behind twice in the nail-biting Airtel Cup final to triumph 6-5 in this nerve racking penalty shootout at Stad Linite on Saturday evening with the score locked at 2-2 after extra-time (1-1 after normal time).
The odds were stacked against St Michel with a squad ravaged by injury and suspension but they showed true character to make it third time lucky in this Airtel Cup final to lift a record seventh title in front of a large crowd which included the Minister for Social Affairs, Community Development and Sports Vincent Meriton, the main sponsor Airtel’s chief executive Amadou Dina and senior officials of the Seychelles Football Federation.
St Michel’s other wins came in 2004, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2013.
The other winners of the Airtel Cups are La Passe (2003, 2014 and 2015), Red Star (2005 and 2006), Anse Reunion (2007) and Côte d’Or (2012).
This is also the second time St Louis lose to St Michel in an Airtel Cup final after going down 1-2 in 2009 and Saturday’s final was their third appearance after 2007 when they were edged 0-1 by Anse Reunion.
The match
St Louis will only have themselves to blame for allowing this first Airtel Cup to slip from their grasp in a match where they had made the brightest start and should have taken the lead in the 2nd minute when Nigerian Kazeem Adeyeri flicked a header into the path of captain Mervin Mathiot whose shot was charged down by an alert goalkeeper Gino Melanie.
In the 19th minute, Danny Madeleine picked out Adeyeri with a long ball but the Nigerian’s control let him down when the goal was at his mercy.
St Michel, who struggled to get to grips in this first period, should have done better from a Bertrand Esther mistake which Malagasy Jocelyn pounced on to centre to Alex Nibourette but he blazed his volley sky high.
In the 24th minute, St Louis had a strong call for a penalty turned down by referee Alistair Barra after captain Mathiot latched onto Collin Bibi’s through ball and went down under a crude tackle but the official was not convinced and it was also the last contribution by Mathiot who collapsed on the pitch minutes later with concussion and had to be taken to hospital and was replaced by Gerick Vidot.
St Louis though overcame this setback and grabbed the lead in the 33rd minute when referee Barra harshly penalised St Michel’s Norvil Gaspard for a foul on Bibi as he pointed to the penalty spot much to the disbelief of the St Michel players.
Malagasy Tahiry stepped up to fire low past goalkeeper Melanie to make it 1-0 as the St Louis fans celebrated this opener, a goal which forced St Michel to raise their game and Gervais Waye-Hive nearly leveled matters in the 42nd minute as he sneaked behind the St Louis defence to meet Malagasy Hassan Aly’s cross. But Waye-Hive could not squeeze the ball into the net from a tight angle as the first half ended in St Louis’ advantage.
St Michel showed more purpose in the second half as they dominated proceedings and Aly forced a good save out of Malagasy goalkeeper Michel in the 48th minute from a free-kick on the edge of the penalty area.
A minute later at the other end, Adeyeri fed Elijah Tamboo who was in a great scoring position but goalkeeper Melanie produced a stunning save to deny him.
St Michel continued to push for an equaliser and almost got caught in the 69th minute as substitute Carlos Siméon threaded a pass to Adeyeri and goalkeeper Melanie rushed out of his goal and was beaten to the ball by the St Louis striker but luckily Yannick Manou sprinted back to save the blushes of his keeper as he cleared the danger.
In the 75th minute, Jocelyn missed a sitter from a decent cross by Gaspard which eluded defender Esther and fell nicely to him but he shot wide.
St Michel though punished St Louis in the 80th minute as they tried to defend for too long their slender goal lead. Jocelyn floated a corner and there was Neil Confiance who headed home at the near post to level the score at 1-1 much to the relief of the St Michel fans.
This match had now raised a notch as it could have gone either way in the dying minutes of this half. Firstly Jocelyn shot across the face of goal after some brilliant control and a minute later at the other end, Adeyeri skipped past two defenders but his left foot shot went agonisingly wide of goalkeeper Melanie’s far post.
Extra-time
The match took another twist in the fourth minute of added time when referee Barra quite wrongly penalised St Michel captain Allen Larue for a foul on Vidot on the half way line and more cruelly brandished a second yellow card to reduce St Michel to 10 men much to the astonishment and anger of his teammates and supporters.
Despite the man shortage, St Michel looked the brighter side in the first period of extra-time and Waye-Hive tested goalkeeper Michel with a dipping free-kick in the 93rd minute which he just managed to tip over and six minutes later, Leeroy Corallie saw his header from Waye-Hive’s pinpoint cross fly narrowly wide of the target.
St Louis also went close in the second period of extra-time when in the 107th minute, Tahiry combined with Adeyeri to set up Siméon but he shot straight at goalkeeper Melanie.
St Louis regained the lead in 115th minute as Adeyeri linked up with Tahiry who made space to drill the ball at the near post past a stunned goalkeeper Melanie for a 2-1 lead as the St Louis fans rejoiced as they thought it would be the winning goal.
St Michel though had other ideas as they levelled the score three minutes later as Jocelyn held off three St Louis defenders and was even allowed to turn and place his shot past goalkeeper Michel to make it 2-2 as the St Michel supporters celebrated the goal which propelled the match into a lottery penalty shootout.
Penalty shootout
St Michel’s Jocelyn got the ball rolling as he tucked home his penalty but Tahiry made it 1-1 and Waye-Hive put his team 2-1 up only for Adeyeri to equalise though he was booked after scoring for his celebration.
Aly kept St Michel at 3-2 and then Vidot saw his weak shot blocked by goalkeeper Melanie but St Louis goalkeeper Michel pushed away Nibourette’s spot kick to keep his team in the match especially when Bertrand Esther made it 3-3.
Corallie restored St Michel’s lead at 4-3 but substitute Henny Dufresne made it 4-4 and as the match went to sudden death shootout, Manou converted his spot kick for a 5-4 lead though Travis Laurence equalised at 5-5.
Confiance beat goalkeeper Michel with a raking shot to put the score at 6-5 and when Michel dusted himself to blast the seventh spot kick high over the crossbar, St Michel were in dream land as they celebrated a hard-earned cup triumph while St Louis were left to lick their wounds and reflect on how they blew a great chance to be crowned champions.
Their coach Nigel Freminot was lost for explanation after the energy-sapping match as he was left very disappointed.
“I am very disappointed to have lost this final in a match we should have won but allowed it to slip away in the last three minutes due to a lack of concentration and in the penalty shootout, it was the luckiest team who won,” coach Freminot told Sports NATION.
As for the St Michel manager Andrew Jean-Louis, he was full of praise for his players for their perseverance and fighting spirit which helped them to lift the title.
“It was an intense final where our opponents had the upper hand in the first half but we came back to control things after the break in a high velocity match. But I’m also disappointed with the official for the sending off as it was a harsh decision but again congratulations to my players for this tremendous effort to fight back to win this title the hard way,” the St Michel manager said.
The cups and medals were presented to the two teams by Minister Meriton and Airtel chief executive Dina as well as George Bibi, an executive member of the Seychelles Football Federation.
Sports NATION would like seize this occasion to congratulate the St Michel team and their fans on their cup success.
R. J-L