Jose Ramirez Barreto scored two goals out of four for Mahindra against HASC

Margao: Churchill Brothers defeated East Bengal 10-9 in the sudden death to set up a semi-final date with Mahindra United in the 27th Federation Cup played at the Nehru Stadium here on Sunday.

With Churchill and East Bengal failing to break the deadlock in the regulation and extra time, the tie-breaker rule was applied. But it also ended tied at 4-4 with Mike Okoro, Liswa Nduti, Jatin Bisht and Sydney Nkalanga scoring for East Bengal and Jotin Singh, Syed Hussain, Sony P. T. and Vanlalrova netting for the Goans.

In the sudden death, Syed Rahim Nabi, Covan Lawrence, Suresh M., Saumik Dey and I. M. Vijayan scored for the red-and-golds, while Ngozi Tony, Chitra Singh, Vinay Singh, Villroy D’Cruz, Amjad Hussain and Abba Muritala scored for Churchill.

East Bengal thus went out of the tournament like Mohun Bagan had done on Saturday.

East Bengal’s Dipankar Roy was shown the yellow card by referee S. Suresh.

Churchill put up a brilliant show to snub off the Bengal team’s challenge. They played a pacy game to unsettle the Calcutta giants’ rhythm.

The Goans’ midfield coordinated well along with their up-front, and with good support from the defence, they made the inroad and had a first go at the rival goal with Bungo Singh stretching keeper Rajat Ghosh.

East Bengal striker Okoro and Sydney were not given much space to operate by the Churchill defence where Osumanu stood like a rock to blunt the rival moves. And whenever they broke the defence, keeper Vinay Singh did well to keep the ball out.

East Bengal’s best chance came in the 35th minute of the first half when Okoro sent a cross to Sydney, but the latter’s header went out narrowly.

In the second half, East Bengal coach Subhash Bhowmick introduced Malsawmtluanga in the midfield and their attack looked more threatening but the Churchill defence played their hearts out to thwart their moves.

With no result coming, frustration grew large on Bhowmick’s face and he introduced his trump card Vijayan to no effect as the match ended goalless in the regulation and extra time.

Earlier on Sunday, Jose Ramirez Barreto’s brace guided Mahindra to a convincing 4-2 win over Hindustan Aeronautics Sporting Club (HASC) in the quarter final.

All the goals came in the first half with Barreto, Steven Dias and N. S. Manju scoring for the Jeepmen, while Sunil scored a brace to reduce the margin for HASC.

S. Venkatesh of Mahindra was adjudged tMan-of-the-Match.

After seeing HASC playing a defensive game in their last match against Dempo, Mahindra played an attacking game with three strikers.

Mahindra coach Derrick Periera’s strategy helped as the Jeepmen took an early lead in the 15th minute.

Venkatesh, who controlled the midfield along with Barreto, initiated the move from the right and gave a pass to Subhas Chakraborty who send a low cross from the right to Barreto who headed in. Four minutes later, Dias increased the lead when his shot from the top of the box hit the right post and landed into the net off a pass from Venkatesh.

Mahindra piled up pressure on their rival and scored one more goal when Manju found the net with a header off a free kick taken by Dias.

However, as the Mahindra defence looked relaxed following the goal, HASC shed off their defensive approach and attacked the rival goal to reduce the margin through Sunil’s brace who first beat keeper Sandip Nandi with an angular drive off a Janny Freedy pass in the 22nd minute and then scored again in the 34th minute.