By: Lawal Oluwadamilare
The clouds gathered so as the crowd, to witness a showdown of University of Ibadan finest departments battle it out for the 2023/2024 UI Seals Cup trophy. The final, which happened to be the most anticipated game within the University, finally saw the light of day, despite previous postponement due to Friday’s rainfall.
MBBS emerged victorious against IPE in the UI Seals Cup final, winning with penalties. This victory marks a familiar outcome for the two teams, with MBBS proving their ability to cope in high-pressure situations.
IPE took the opening chance in the first half, creating lot of problems for MBBS with Pius running the midfield overtime. Despite their beautiful display, MBBs proved equal and composed leaving no ball and chance to IPE’s striker Paragon. The game remained at deadlock for a very long time, while both teams struggled to create clear cut chances, it was until the latter stages of the first half that Pius found Abraham with a pass for the opener to get IPE ahead.
Second half went under away as MBBS returned with much pressure, the IPE defense stayed together stopping any possible threat from Carbon and other desperate attackers.
Carbon came close to equalizing with an overhead kick for MBBS, but Bukunmi was equal to the task and tidied the attempt. The match looked more alive for MBBS and they finally got their reward for their intense pressure, after numerous attempts to break the deadlock, the goal fell for substitute Jide as he slotted home a beautiful strike within the box, which came off as a deflection on one of the IPE defenders.
MBBs came with more pressure again but IPE seemed to allow no chances at all, Paragon opened up a chance for Abraham but the goalkeeper brought it to safety, the match ended 1-1 at full time, with no additional time as it is the rule of the tournament leaving the game to be decided on penalties.
Both teams scored their first four penalties and Bolu from IPE unfortunately placed his own pen into the gloves of the goalkeeper, giving MBBS the win 5-4 on penalties.
At the end of the outing, the highest goal scorer was Paragon; Golden Gloves, Olami; and the most valuable player of the tournament, Pius.
