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Safa scores an emphatic win

Principal Correspondent

Kassas and Tahan struck twice for
the winner
Mboyo scored the lone goal for Dempo

HYDERABAD: Safa Sports Club (Lebanon) marched into the final of the AFC Cup club championship with an emphatic 4-1 win over Dempo Sports Club (India) in the second leg of their semifinal at the Gachibowli Stadium here on Tuesday.

Mohammad Kassas and Hussein Tahan struck twice each for the winner while Iyomi Mboyo scored for Dempo.

It may be recalled that Safa had won the first leg 1-0.

For a team which was expected to raise the bar, Dempo was terribly disappointing in the first-half and compounding its woes was the miserable display in the defence manned by Mahesh Gawli, Rebello Valerianno Joseph and custodian John Dias.

And Roberto Mendes Silva (Beto), who made the starting line-up despite being only “half-fit”, had very little to contribute

Early lead

Exploiting one of the many defensive lapses, Safa snatched an early lead in the ninth minute when Kassas showed fine anticipation to a long cross from the right flank by Rony Azar to head the ball into the right corner of the goal.

For Safa, the combination of Kassas, Azar and Salame Khodr was just too good, repeatedly testing the Goan defence.

The fact that there were only a couple of counter-attacks in the first session was a sorry reflection of how much Dempo struggled.

Safa scored the second goal with Kassas showing wonderful skills. First, he dodged Gawli to pass the ball on to the waiting Hamid Termina near the half-line before sprinting down the left-flank to work himself to a better position for a through ball which he trapped with ease and fired into the right corner.

Making amends

On resumption, Dempo did make amends and showed the required urgency, with the African players Martins Soleye Ranti and Mboyo on top of the circle creating a few tense moments for the rival defence.

Dempo did get something to cheer about in the 60th minute when Mboyo rose above the crowded defence to head an aerial cross from the right by Anthony Pereira to reduce the margin.

That was the 10-minute phase in second session when Dempo matched the opponents in many aspects of the game but just could not score.

Regaining control

But, Safa was soon back on top with a series of counter-attacks and the Dempo defence conceded two more goals in the space of nine minutes towards the final whistle.

First, substitute Hussein Tahan, who was waiting inside the box almost unmarked, had little difficulty in deflecting a ball from the left-corner by Kassas and in the dying seconds Tahan was on target again.

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