Nayanar Cup: Rueful hosts ousted; Air India victorious
Hosts Kerala XI crashed out of E.K Nayanar Memorial Gold Cup football tournament without even a win after Madras Engineering Group, Beng-aluru, striker Nguernilal scored a hat-trick to give the visitors a 5-3 win at Kozhikode Corporation Stadium here on Tuesday.
Kerala striker P. Usman’s hat-trick went in vain in the highly-spirited match as the blunders by Kerala defenders and goalkeeper in the first half helped proved too costly.
Kerala captain and goalkeeper Joby Joseph had a humiliating exit as he was withdrawn in the 40th minute after his lousy keeping paved way for two goals, which in-turn decided the fate of his team in the tournament.
Nguernilal opened the scoring in the 11th minute of the game as he placed the shot at goal from a superb pass from Lokeshwar Singh from the right wing. However, Kerala bounced back in the next minute itself as Usman dribbled past a couple of defenders and scored with a powerful shot.
But then Kerala defenders crumbled completely. Nguernilal regained the lead for MEG in the 22nd minute.
In the 34th minute, as the Kerala captain failed to hold on to the ball for the second straight time and Ramu did not make any mistake to tap the ball in to the back of the net. Kerala’s hopes diminished further as Nguernilal scored his hat-trick four minutes later.
Captain Henry guides Air India to victory
Air India captain Ezeh Henry scored a brace to lead his team into the semifinal of the E.K Nayanar Memorial Gold Cup tournament in the Group 1 match against B N Railway 3-1 played at Kozhikode Corporation Stadium here on Tuesday.
Henry could have netted a hat trick but his penalty in the 84 th minute went far wide and he had to satisfy with two goals. The captain scored in the fourth minute of the game from a lousy defence of BN Railway player. A loose shot of the defender to the goalie was captured by Henry, who dribbled past the custodian and scored an easy goal.
BN Railway’s Pratim Sarkar equalised the score in the 27 th minute of the game. An unmarked Sarkar received the cross from the right wing and finished it effortlessly. However, the equaliser stood only for 10 minutes as Prakash Thorat, made it 2-1.
In the second half, Henry sealed the game off a header from a beautiful cross in the 78 th minute and his team became the first to enter the semifinal of the tourney.
On Wednesday, Shillong Lajong FC will face Army XI and Southern Samity will play Mumbai FC in the group two encounters.
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