Mumbai: East Kolkata had quite fight on hand against Mumbai’s Golden Gunners but managed to scrape through winning a tense penalty shootout duel 5-4 in a quarter-final match of the Karnatak Sporting Association organised 3rd Late Shri Vishwanath Anchan Memorial Veterans’ football tournament 2019-2020, at the KSA ground, Cross Maidan.
The Kolkata side boasting of several former Indian stars in their ranks were unable to translate their superiority into goals and the match finished into a goalless draw.
In the tie-breaker, East Kolkatta confidently and successfully converted from all their five attempts through Swapan Das, Sovan Das, Bijoy Paul, Aloke Dey, Niladri Chakraborty. Golden Gunners could only succeed in converting four through Saby D’Souza, Anton Saldanha, Abbas Ali Rizvi and Prakash Patil. Chiman Apparao try from the second kick was saved by East Kolkata’s substitute goalkeeper Sanjib Paul.
Earlier, last year’s runners-up Bandra Packers got the better of Karnatak Sporting Association 3-2 also via the tie-breaker after the match ended in a goalless stalemate.
Clarie Remedios, Robert Kunnel and D. Martin all scored from the penalty spot for Bandra Packers while Karnatak SA scored only two through Ali Feroze and Tapash Ghosh.
In Friday’s first semi-finals Central Railway, Mumbai will clash with East Kolkata at 3.30 pm and later Akbar Travels, Kerala will meet Bandra Packers, Mumbai in the second semi-final at 4.30 pm.
