Mohammedan Sporting defeated Bhawanipore FC by two second half goals in a group ‘D’ match of the Federation Cup football tournament at the MDSC stadium here on Friday.
After a goalless first half, Brazilian Josimar da Silva Martins (75th minute) and Rajesh Masih (92nd) scored to break Bhawanipore’s spirited resistance. The Kolkata side should have won by a bigger margin had it converted a small percentage of the chances that came its way.
This was Mohd. Sporting’s second win, while it was second defeat for Bhawanipore, effectively knocking it out of the tournament.
Bhawanipore’s goalkeeper Debjit Majumder brought out a string of good saves to reduce the victory margin of Mohd. Sporting. An overtly defensive Bhawanipore side managed to keep a clean slate till the 75th minute but its luck finally ran out as Josimar headed in the first goal following a corner taken by Manish Maithani. The ball was first headed by Nirmal Chettri towards the Bhawanipore’s goalmouth where Josimar climbed over the defenders to nod in the opening goal.
In the injury time, substitute Masih’s 35-yard shot caught Debjit Majumder napping to give Mohammedans a respectable win.
Mohd. Sporting despite its dominance found chances hard to come by as Bhawanipore’s defence stymied the initial threats with ease. In between Syed Rahim Nabi probably missed the easiest of the chances for Mohd. Sporting when he shot over the bar when he had only the goalkeeper to beat.
Dempo Sports Club blanked United Sikkim FC 3-0 for its second win in Group D and leads the points table with six points. Dempo only needs a draw against Mohammedan Sporting in the last league match to qualify for the semifinals. The dominating Goans had to wait till the 23rd minute to find the opening goal and it came through Roberto Mendes Silva who gave finishing touches to Alwyn George’s piercing run on the right flank which had sliced open the Sikkim defence.
At stroke of half-time, Tolgay Ozbey increased the lead for Dempo after collecting a pass from Narayan Das. Tolgay’s solo run from the middle ended in the third goal as the striker planted a right footer into the far post in the 63rd minute.
The results: Mohammedan Sporting 2 (Josimar da Silva Martins 75, Rajesh Masih 92) bt Bhawanipore FC 0; Dempo Sports Club 3 (Roberto Mendes Silva 23, Tolgay Ozbey 45, 63) bt United Sikkim FC 0. Saturday’s fixtures: Sporting Clube de Goa v Kingfisher East Bengal; Bengaluru FC v Rangdajied United.
