By Abhishek Roy, IANS
New Delhi : Mahindra United and Sporting Clube de Goa sailed into the quarter-finals of the 29th Hero Cycles Federation Cup football tournament here after registering solitary goal wins Wednesday.
Steven Dias’ 10th minute strike helped Mumbai’s Mahindra beat Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), Bangalore, while Kenyan Boniface Ambani scored in the sixth minute to enable in Sporting Clube knock out Army XI.
The winners face each in Saturday’s quarter-final.
Mahindra, winners two years ago, lost several key players during the summer transfers but at the near empty Guru Nanak Stadium gave the impression that they have rebuilt their to be back in the title hunt.
The return of national team players like Dias, Ajayan Nair, N.P. Pradeep, Sandeep Nandy, and Manjit Singh has bolstered the Mumbai outfit’s chances of regaining the title.
Dias, Nair and Pradeep, instrumental in India’s Nehru Cup triumph, again sparkled in their club colours. Dias was set-up by Congo’s Minga Edson Dico in the box after Mohammed Rafi had flicked a pass on the turn to the foreign signing at the edge of the box.
The midfielder came close to scoring a second goal in the 46th minute but his powerful shot from 30-yards kissed the upright on its way out. Dico was also found guilty on at least six occasions and Mahindra coach Derek Pereira accepted his team’s lone goal was too little.
“We should have won by a bigger margin. But we played attacking football and I am happy with it,” said Pereira.
HAL also had some good opportunities but failed to cash in on them. The best of them came in the 25th minute, when Kuttimani raced into the box and had only goalkeeper Nandy to beat but chipped over.
Earlier, both Sporting Clube and Army XI put on a lacklustre display with Ambani’s goal saving the Goans the blushes. The Kenyan proved that there is life beyond East Bengal. He was discarded by Kolkata’s galmour club at the start of the season but proved his worth with the Goan club and was deservedly named the Man of the Match.
Ambani rattled the army men’s defence with some fine solo runs and found the net off a through pass from Jospeh Pereira from the right flank.
The Goan side missed several chances in the first half, Army XI custodian Robikanta Singh coming up with several good saves. Harmanjot Khabra curled in a beautiful cross from the right flank in the 25th minute but an airborne Robikanta came up with a brilliant effort to parry the shot.
After the change of ends, the armymen desperately tried to take the game back to the Goans but the rival defence stood firm.