Goalkeeper Prasanto Dora became the hero as defending champions Mohun Bagan clinched an edge-of-the-seat 8-7 victory against East Bengal through penalty shoot out to enter the final of the 110th IFA Shield football tournament here today.

After sqandering a lead through Brazilian Roberto Mendes Silva alias Beto from a setpiece to Shylo Malswamtluanga's equaliser in regulation 90 minutes and a barren extra time, Bagan wrested the match in sudden death as a diving Dora fisted away Surya Bikash Chakraborty's shot, drawing the curtain on the marathon battle.

Beto scored again in the tie breaker before Eduwardo Coelho, Noel Wilson, Amit Das, Asim Biswas, Mehtab Hussain and Dulal Biswas followed suit.

East Bengal, on the other hand, paid for missing the easiest of the setpieces on a couple of occasions.

Paolo, who missed a penalty in the regulation time, compensated for that in the tie-breaker, but Chakraborty's folly nullified the successful attempts by Climax Lawrence, Sasthi Duley, Madhav Das, Malswamtluanga and Lewis Aniweta.

Earlier, the proceedings in the high-pitched encounter at the Salt Lake stadium had enough drama in store to keep the 60,000 strong crowd on the stands literally on their toes.

Two penalties - one converted, another missed - one red card that too for East Bengal custodian Rajat Ghosh Dastidar, five yellow cards and temporary stoppage of play due to scarcity of light - the Shield derby saw it all and even more.

The highlight of the match was when goalkeeper Rajat Ghosh Dastidar collected the second yellow of the evening for a seemingly innocuous offence of delaying and was shown the way out of the turf.

Floodlights not working has by now become the norm. And the organisers surely along with the supporters and all others concerned dont feel ashamed with the intensity they did in the India-Japan derby. So it happened and all waited patiently before lights were back to their place.

Bagan, who took the lead through Beto in the 42nd minute before Malswamtluanga drew level in the 62nd minute, would take on Myanmar's Finance and Revenue Football Club in the final on October 10.