Army XI players lift goalkeeper Abungobi Singh after he saved a goal in the tie-breaker against Sporting Clube de Goa in New Delhi on Saturday. (PTI)

New Delhi: A day after the Vijay Divas, Army XI created history by winning the Durand Cup football tournament for the first time, beating Sporting Clube de Goa 5-4 in the tie-breaker.

This is the first time that a Services team has won the second oldest football tournament in the world, the last one being Gorkha Brigade in 1969. The Armymen had lost to East Bengal in the final in 2002.

The game remained goalless even after extra time, forcing the implementation of penalty shootout. The Army team held their nerves to edge out their more fancied rivals as they had done in the semi-final against JCT.

Ramachander, Thirunavukarsu, Birendra Bora, Binod Bantava and Raghu Kumar found the net for Army XI, while Chidi Edeh, Nicholas Rodregues, Rajesh Meetei and Hardeep Saini were on target for the Goan outfit.

Sporting’s Nigerian captain Dudu’s spot kick was saved by substitute custodian Abungobi Singh, who had come on just before the shootout, to hand over the Durand Cup to Army XI.

The soldiers, coached by Stanley Rozario, effectively neutralised the threat of Dudu and Chidi thereby controlling the game to a large extent.

The Goans were to blame for the defeat as they missed several chances, Dudu being the main culprit.

His misery was complete when he missed the fifth kick in the tie-breaker.

Army XI coach Stanley Rozario said that tall and strong foreign strikers in the opposition camp prompted him to adopt a defensive strategy against Sporting.

“They had three foreigners in their ranks, two of whom were strikers, so going on all out attack would not have been the right strategy,” Rozario said.

“A win for a team comprising totally of Indian players was a very good sign for the game in India,” Rozario said. “My boys played like brave soldiers,” he said.