JCT, Salgaocar storm into Durand quarters

Nov 01: Riding on Brazilian Eduardo Da Silva Escobar four goals JCT Mills, Phagwara blanked Assam Rifles 5-0 while Malsawmtlunga struck a brace for Salgaocar to thrash Viva Kerala 4-1 to storm into the quartefinals of the Osian’s 120th Durand Cup football tournament played at the Ambedkar Stadium here on Wednesday.

Two times Durand champions Salgaocar who now meets JCT in the quarterfinals on November 4 was a totally change unit after their early exit from the Federation Cup. They have recently returned back to the top division of the national football league.

Salgaocar dominated the proceedings with a flurry of attacks in the rival citadel and kept the pressure mounting on them. Nigerian Felix Chimaokwu, Nicholas Rodrigues and Malswamtlunga penetrated the rival defence on many occasions keeping the Viva stoppers at bay.

The Goans were clearly the superior outfit, as Viva Kerala was no match to their opponents. S Malswamtlunga opened the account for the Goan side in the 15 th minute unleashing a stunning volley in to the net after receiving a ball from Jerose Oliviera. He had enough time to chest down the ball and then going for his shot, which shows the marking of Kerala defenders.

Felix was at his menacing best yesterday as he continued to attack the Kerala box on various occasions. He got his due in the 38th minute to score his team second and his first goal of the tournament. Nicholas Rodrigues confirmed the last eight spot of the team by adding one more five minutes before half-time, leading the margin to three goals in to the half-time.

On changing the ends Kerala players showed some signs of resistance but their forwards could not be able to take the advantage of the moves created by their mid fielders. The ball possession was largely confined with Salgaocar players in both the halves.

Saikhom Santa Singh scored the lone consolation goal for Viva Kerala in the 73rd minute, while Malswamtlunga rubbed more salt in the opposition wounds by scoring his second in the last minute to seal a convincing victory for his team.

EDUARDO’s HAT-TRICK IN JCT VICTORY

Brazilian Eduardo Da Silva Escobar scored four goals including a hat-trick for the Ludhiana based JCT Club to rout Assam Rifles 5-0 in the second match of the day. Riflemen from Assam showed some great spirit during the qualifying stage but the spark was totally missing on Wednesday as they meekly surrendered against their opponents.

JCT opened the goal glut in the 16th minute through captain Julius Akpele who scored on rebound with a header off to flag kick taken by Marcos Pereira. Eduardo missed an easy opportunity to double the lead in the 30th minute, as he had only goalkeeper to beat but he placed a low power shot straight into his hands.

Edu amended his mistake four minutes later scoring a goal off to a corner kick. Assam rifles players were too short to gather aerial balls and their body game wasn’t even matching with the tall lanky players of Punjab.

Riflemen got an only chance to get past rival defence during the first half in the 32nd minute when their star striker Akum Ao received the ball inside the danger area but shot it wide over the top wasting the opportunity. The Millmen were leading with two goals at the stroke of lemon-break.

On resumption JCT players came out in a stronger way giving no chance to their rivals to stage any comeback in the match. Edu scored his second through penalty in the 52nd minute, when Praveen Kumar was brought down in the penalty area by Assam team captain Naoba Singh conceding a penalty for his team.

Edu completed his hat-trick through a 22-yard free-kick, after the Assam team goalkeeper handled the ball outside the box due to lack of communication between him and Referee’s call of playing on, with a low range shot on the second bar foxing the custodian altogether.

The final goal came in the 89th minute once again through Eduardo on rebound of his stunning shot from the left side of the top of the box taking the goal’s tally to five.

JCT’s coach Sukhwinder Singh was very much satisfied with his team’s performance and looking forward for the Sunday’ quarterfinal fight against Salgoacar, whom he considered a seasoned team.

According to the coach India star striker Sunil Chettri would be playing the next match and there is no injury worries for the team right now except their experienced and veteran midfielder Renedy Singh.