By IANS
New Delhi : Defending champions Dempo Sports Club of Goa knocked out Indian Air Force XI (IAF) of Barrackpore 5-0 from the main round of the 120th Osian’s Durand Cup football tournament here Thursday.
Brazilian Beto and Nigerian Eddeh Chidi scored a brace each while Ranty Martins struck once to help the defending champions cruise into the quarterfinals at the Ambedkar Stadium.
Dempo coach Armando Coalaco rested some of his top Indian players, who were on national duty, but didn’t face any problem as his boys demolished the air force team.
The defending champions seemed to have recovered from their Federation Cup semi-final loss to Mahindra United and made a good start in the defence of their title in this century-old tournament.
Nigerian Ranty Martins opened the scoring in the sixth minute of the goal from his compatriot Chidi’s pass. Chidi’s square pass found an unmarked Martins in the box who had an open net and guided it past the goalie to take a 1-0 lead.
Dempo kept on stepping up their attack and Beto scored again with a scintillating effort in the 21st minute. Chidi made a solo run and failed to muscle his way past the defenders and then from the baseline gave a cross to Beto whose spectacular volley crashed into the net.
The Goan outfit added the third goal to their tally when Chidi slotted in from an immaculate pass from Anthony Pereira, who split the IAF defence and made his way into the box and guided the ball to the net.
In the second half, Dempo’s Nigerian strike force Chidi and Martins split the IAF defence on numerous occasions. And in the 71st minute Chidi set up Beto for the Brazilian’s second goal of the match.
Four minutes later Chidi completed his double with a header from Ranty’s cross to make matters worse for the Barrackpore outfit.
TEAMS:
Dempo Sports Club: V.P. Sathish Kumar (goalkeeper), Dominic Noronha, John Dias, Cresson Antao, Valeriano Rebello, Anthony Pereira, Nascimento Silveira, Beto, Nicolau Borges, Chidi Edeh, Ranty Martins
Indian Air Force XI (IAF): A. Bandopadhyay (goalkeeper), R.K. Singh, G.S. Sandhu, R.S. Bisht, Kiran Kanwar, Stephen, W.P. Singh, S. Thapa, S. Thapliyal, Kalyan Pal, Anil Kumar
Referee: M.A. Siddique