By IANS,
New Delhi : Pune FC defeated Indian Air Force (IAF) while Army Red beat Madras Engineering Group (MEG) Bangalore in the quarterfinal league of the Durand Cup here Friday.
Pune won 2-0 against Indian Air Force (IAF) while Army Red thrashed Madras Engineering Group (MEG) Bangalore 3-0 at the Ambedkar Stadium.
After dominating performance in the first half, Pune took the lead in the 47th minute through Brazilian Edmar Figueira and veteran Paresh Shivalkar doubled the lead in the 74th minute.
Earlier in the day, MEG suffered their second consecutive loss in the tournament against a dominating Army Red.
After a scrappy performance against defending champions Churchill Brothers, MEG failed to rise to the ocassion and handed Army Red the lead in the 17th minute through an own goal from Vineet. The defender failed to read a cross from the right and the ball hit him while on its way into the net.
Even after trailing by a goal, MEG fought back strongly, but their efforts were not enough. Army Red’s striker Sekhohao Tuboi doubled the lead in the 76th minute, while a minute later Gordon Zoram Channa netted in the third.
Pune FC coach Derek Pereira was happy with the performance of his club.
“It was a good performance, but if we want to win the tournament, we have to improve a lot. It is a tough group and we cannot take anybody for granted. There are a few glitches and we have to fix them,” he said.
In Saturday’s match, Sporting Clube-de Goa will take on JCT in a must-win tie to remain in the hunt for a place in the last four, while Federation Cup champions East Bengal will lock horns with Air India. Air India too will be desperate to draw points after they went down to Salgaocar 3-1 Thursday.