Smart City football club of Lagos on Friday November 19, have their name engraved as the maiden champions of the Jagaban Football Tournament “Jagaban Cup 2022” after recording a 5-4 kicks from the penalty mark victory over surprised finalists, Messiah FC at the Mobolaji Johnson Arena.
It was an evening of penalty shootouts to decide the champions and third place winners – Smart City and Ikorodu United benefiting from the spot kicks.
The entertaining and high tempo game ended in a stalemate after the two sides failed to convert a few chances that fell their path in regular time.
Smart City got all kicks right and had luck shine on them when Messiah FC couldn’t be saved as a player missed his kick to hand Smart City a 5-4 win.
Earlier, 36 Lion narrowly lost the third place match to Ikorodu City via penalty shootouts too after both teams failed to score any goal during the regulation period.
Despite the heroics of 36 Lion goalkeeper, Samuel Oriola who saved two of Ikorodu City’s spot kicks to take the penalties to sudden death, the latter still triumphed 3-2 after NPFL La Liga U15 Promises graduate blasted the decisive spot kick beyond the Lions’ goalie’s gaping hands.
It was a fantastic and thrilling end to the first edition of the Jagaban Cup which drew out over 7000 Lagosians to the Mobolaji Johnson Arena each day for the past four days.
The tournament was organised to galvanize support for All Progressives Congress Presidential Candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu who is the frontline candidate for the 2023 Presidential Election and the tournament has delivered on Its promises and even exceeded expectations.
The tournament was packaged by 36 Lion led by Hajj Gafar Liameed and Diamond Sports.