Chibueze Francis Maduako with the Man of the Match trophy at Salt Lake Stadium on Thursday. Picture by Santosh Ghosh

Calcutta: A complacent East Bengal bowed out of the 111th IFA Shield, suffering a 1-2 loss to Ever-Ready in the first semi-final of the IFA Shield at the Salt Lake Stadium on Thursday evening.

Riding high on the crushing 4-1 win over Mohun Bagan the other day, Subhas Bhowmick’s men flattered to deceive and missed out on a chance to clash with the Bayern Munich reserve side.

The German outfit is expected to put it across Mohammedan Sporting on Friday.

Foreigners have often been the saviours of Indian clubs but on this day, Mike Okoro turned out to be East Bengal’s villain, while Ever-Ready found a hero in Nigerian Chibueze Francis Maduako. It was Francis who turned the match on its head with a brace to take his team to Sunday’s final.

The start was good for the red-and-golds. They took the lead in the third minute, through a K. Kulothungan strike. An unmarked Sydney Nakalanga moved into the Ever-Ready citadel and passed the ball to Kulothungan, who unleashed a powerful left-footer which left goalie Sibram Dey clueless.

In the next minute, Ever-Ready players had their heart in their mouth when a Covan Lawrence right-footer from 30 yards missed the goal by a whisker.

East Bengal missed six sitters,of which Okoro was guilty on four occasions.

Francis struck the equaliser in the 23rd minute off a free-kick from just outside the box. East Bengal goalie Naseem Akhtar dived to his right, but failed to stop the powerful shot.

It was 1-1 at the halfway stage. East Bengal dominated the second session but just couldn’t put the ball into the rival goal.

As the match looked headed for extra-time, Francis struck again. In the 89th minute, an unmarked Theodore Wrobeh moved into the East Bengal box, forwarded charge to Francis, who neatly placed the ball in the net.

TEAMS

Ever-Ready: Sibram Dey, Akshay Das, Anupam Sarkar, Amulya Mondal, Mujaffar Rehman, Crispin Chetri, Dhiman Sinha, Lalkamal Bhowmick, Snehashis Chakraborty (Ratan Das, 67), Chibueze Francis Maduako, Theodore Wrobeh.

East Bengal: Naseem Akhtar, Shasthi Duley, Covan Lawrence, M. Suresh, Saumik Dey, Bernard Pires (Debjit Ghosh,79), K. Kulothungan, Mike Okoro, Alvito D’ Cunha, Sydney Nakalanga, Gurpreet Singh ( S. Malsawmtluanga, 51).

Referee: S. Suresh.