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Churchill Brothers in final

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Churchill Brothers entered the 121st Osian’s Durand Cup football final with a 3-0 victory over Sporting Clube de Goa achieved via the tiebreaker at the Ambedkar Stadium here.

Lanky goalkeeper Arindam Bhattacharya was the hero for the winner tonight. He blocked Bisheshwor Singh’s effort on his right and N. Singh’s weak shot to his left. For the third kick, Arindam had little to do as Micky Fernandes drove wide.

For Churchill Brothers, the scorers were Onyeka Odafa, Ogba Kalunnanna and Warun Deep.

On Friday evening, there was little that Sporting Clube and Churchill Brothers could offer in terms of entertainment.

The first session was particularly disappointing as the teams concentrated on defending and showed no urgency to score even though Onyeka Odafa worked hard to play positive football.

Sporting Clube was not averse to playing hard. Some tough tackling by C. Chandrashekhar and Felip Gomes kept the Churchill Brothers strikers at bay with the exception of Odafa.

A constant threat

The athletic Nigerian was a constant threat to the Sporting Clube defence and a few times he did manage to shake off the tireless Chandrashekhar, who stuck to Odafa like a shadow. His ability to anticipate allowed Chandrashekhar the strength to snuff many a Churchill Brothers move.

Tight marking was the order of the day and Sporting Clube knew its strength lay in defending hard and looking to trigger off counter attacks. On one such occasion, Micky Fernandes found his way into the Churchill Brothers half but the team only earned a free kick. Micky curled the ball well but the target remained elusive.

Odafa came closest to scoring in what was an insipid first session. His free kick in the 15th minute left goalkeeper Felix D’Souza poorly placed but the ball thudded into the right post, much to the relief of the Sporting Clube bench.

Another move two minutes later saw Churchill Brothers’ Reisangmi Vashum break into the rival box but fail to finish the move, only lobbing the ball over the advancing goalkeeper.

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