Unprecedented scenes as India lift Nehru Cup

New Delhi - The Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium saw unprecedented scenes as India overcame African giants Cameroon 5-4 in a penalty shootout here on Sunday to lift the Nehru Cup for the third consecutive time.

Football fans invaded the pitch as Makon Thierry missed his spot-kick to give India a hat-trick of Nehru Cup titles.

The Indian players were completely surrounded by a massive crowd as police had to be called to disperse them.

“Oh my god! We just beat Cameroon,” shouted an elated fan.

India held the Central Africans to a 2-2 draw in normal time as Sunil Chhetri and Gouramangi Singh found the back of the net.

Neither team could find the winner in extra-time as the match headed to penalties.

Fans, who had chosen to give the Nehru Cup football tournament a miss, came in large numbers to witness history being scripted

With the rain gods being kind, over 12,000 came to witness the final.

“I had to come see the final, India is playing. But it would have been even better if the actual Cameroon international side had come. If Samuel Eto’o, Alex Song and Benoit Assou-Ekotto were here that would have been great,” Siddharth Arora, a student, told IANS.

It was the most vociferous support India has got in the tournament.

Flag waving, trumpet blowing and drum beating echoed throughout the ground with every touch of the ball by an Indian player cheered loudly.

There was more good news for the Indian team as president of the All India Football Federation (AIFF) Praful Patel doubled the winning prize money from $100,000 to $200,000.