By IANS
New Delhi : Defending champions Dempo Sports Club of Goa will face Mumbai’s Air India in the quarterfinal of the 120th Durand Cup football tournament here Saturday.
In the main round matches at the Ambedkar Stadium Thursday, Air India defeated Osian’s New Delhi Heroes 3-1 while Dempo knocked out Indian Air Force XI (IAF) 5-0 at the Ambedkar Stadium here Thursday.
It was Heroes first big match of the year and under coach Cheema Okerie of Nigeria they put up a spirited fight against the Mumbai outfit.
Nigerian striker Bashiru Abbas scored a brace (18th, 65th) and Samson Singh chipped in the 70th minute for Air India while Malswama scored the lone goal for the Heroes in the 48th minute.
The Air India team took the lead in the 18th minute through Bashiru’s header from a corner kick.
Heroes playing upfront with Krispin Chettri and Gyan kept made some good moves into the defence of the airlines team but failed to capitalise on the attempts due to lack of a good finisher.
The Heroes found the equaliser three minutes when a faulty back-pass from Air India’s defender found an unmarked Malswama, who slotted it past the Air India goalie.
After the equaliser, it seemed that Heroes were a rejuvenated site and made repeated attack on the Mumbai team. But they were unlucky as Bashiru broke the deadlock through his powerful 25-yard shot in the 65th minute.
Samson struck again in the 70th minute to seal the match in Air India’s favour. The forward dodged two defenders and his volley found the net.
Earlier in the day, Brazilian Beto and Nigerian Eddeh Chidi scored a double each while Ranty Martins struck once to help the defending champions cruise into the quarterfinals with ease.
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 toyed with 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 defence of their title in this century-old tournament.
Nigerian Ranty Martins opened the scoring in the sixth minute from compatriot Chidi’s pass. Chidi’s square pass found an unmarked Martins in the box who guided the ball past the goalie to take a 1-0 lead.
Dempo kept on stepping up their attack and Beto scored with a scintillating effort in the 21st minute. Chidi made a solo run and failed to get past the defenders and from the baseline gave a cross to Beto whose volley crashed into the net.
The Goan outfit added the third goal to their tally after Chidi was set up by midfielder Anthony Pereira. Chidi slotted in from an immaculate pass from Pereira, who split the IAF defence.
In the second half, Dempo’s Nigerian strike force of Chidi and Martins entered the IAF defence on numerous occasions.
In the 71st minute Chidi set up Beto for the Brazilian’s second goal in the match. Four minutes later Chidi completed his double with a header from Ranty’s cross to make it 5-0.
TEAMS:
Match I:
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
Match II:
Air India: Raju Ekka (goalkeeper), Napolean Singh, Nirmal Chettri, Dhanchandra Singh, Uttam Singh, Santosh Kohli, Sanju Pradhan, Hringsolal Thomte, Paresh Shivalkar, Samson Singh, Bashiru Abbas
Osian’s New Delhi Heroes: Rashid (goalkeeper), Stanley, Reza, Prashant, Amjad, Mani Tombi, Harrison, Bhuvan, Krispin Chettri, Harvinder Jr., Gyan
Referee: A. Rowan