Tiruchirapalli: In a thrilling match, Bengal defeated Tamil Nadu 5-4 via the tie-breaker to win the 14th national youth (under-21) football championship for the M. Dutta Roy trophy Tuesday.

Bengal team is being coached by Krishnendu Roy.

At the end of regulation time in the final match, both sides were locked 1-1.

Tarif Ahmed scored for Bengal in the 85th minute while S. Mukesh equalised for the hosts, 30 seconds before the close. The 30-minute extra time also failed to produce the winner and tie-breaker was resorted to.

In the tie-breaker, Jaideep Bose, Tapan Meity, Tarif Ahmed and Rajeep Ahmed scored while for the hosts E. Dorairaj, S. Mukesh and P. Muthusamy were successful.

Bengal custodian Subhashish Choudhury did a fine job, making some spectacular saves.

This is the fifth time Bengal is winning the trophy. It had entered the final 12 times and it did not take part in the competition on one occasion.

Meanwhile, only a replica of the trophy was presented to the winners as last year’s winner Punjab had not handed over the trophy to the football authorities.

Punjab, who had won the title last year, had also got the trophy late as Bengal, who had won the 12th edition, did not hand it over in time.

Punjab got it only a few months back following persuasion from the All India Football Federation.