CUTTACK: DEFENDING champions Kingfisher East Bengal capitalised on Orgi Penn’s 67th minute goal to edge out Pune Football Club 1-0 and march into the semifinals of the 32nd Federation Cup Football Tournament at Barabati Stadium here on Saturday.
Maintaining their winning run, six-time champions East Bengal topped the table in the Group A quarterfinal league, collecting nine points from three outing. They earlier beat Air India 3-1 and HAL 2-1. In the first semifinal here on September 29, East Bengal will meet Churchill Brothers SC, who topped the table in Group B with five points at Vasco, Goa earlier in the day.
After a barren first half, Nigerian recruit Penn scored the all-important goal off a through pass from the middle. He controlled the ball beautifully and beat Pune FC custodian Balaji Narasimhan with a measured shot.
The Kolkata giants would have won the match by a bigger margin had they converted three more chances. Australian striker Tolgay Ozbey, who scored three goals in the previous two matches, missed two chances to increase his individual tally. His powerful left-footer in the 32nd minute was punched away by the opposition custodian. That was the only occasion that any of the two teams came close to taking the lead in the first-half.
After the change of ends, Ozbey had another opportunity to score off a Reisangmi Vashum pass, but missed the target. East Bengal had one more opportunity to increase their lead, but it was foiled by the Pune FC custodian, who punched away a booming shot from Harmanjot Singh Khabra in the 80th minute.
The Pune side got two chances to take lead or level the score, but both proved in vain. In the 53rd minute, KN Ajayan’s shot was saved by East Bengal goalkeeper Sandip Nundy and in the 85th minute Asim Hassan’s free kick went inches over the crossbar.
Meanwhile, in an inconsequential Group A match, HAL, Bangalore and Air India played out a scoreless draw. The result of the match had no impact as East Bengal had already qualified for the final-four stage from the group after beating Pune FC 1-0 in the first match of the day. While HAL, Bangalore had got four points from three outings with one win, one draw and a defeat, Air India had one point from as many outings with one draw and two defeats.
chirag hold churchill
Vasco: Churchill Brothers survived a second-half scare to hold Chirag United to a goalless draw and enter the semi-finals. Both Churchill and Chirag finished with five points but the Goans qualified from Group B on better goal difference. Churchill will meet defending champions and Group A topper East Bengal in the last four in Cuttack.
Dempo in last 4
Ludhiana: Despite being held to a goalless draw by JCT, Dempo managed to book a semifinal berth. JCT, without a single victory, played decent football to win their first point of the tournament and salvage some pride. The second match, between ONGC Mumbai and AIFF-XI, turned out to be a balanced affair, in which the former romped home 2-1. The first semi-final is slated for Sept 29 and the second for Sept 30, before the final on Oct 2.
