Mumbai, April 17: Formidable Ambernath United-Atlanta FC dished out another fluent performance and tamed Bank of Baroda 3-1 in the Nadkarni Cup 2023 final organized by the Mumbai Football Association (MFA) and, played at the Neville D’Souza ground, Bandra.
The Elite Division champions were always in control and took the lead through their hard-working and prolific goal-scorer Arif Shaikh in the 23rd minute and went into the break with a slender 1-0 advantage.
On resumption, Ambernath United skipper scored the second goal in the 51st minute to double the lead before Abhijit Taware 90th minute to complete the win and emerge worthy champions. Bank of Baroda managed to reduce the deficit with Sanket Humbe scoring the lone goal in the 76th minute.
Ambernath United were presented with the glittering Nadkarni Cup and a cash award of Rs 50,000 while Bank of Baroda received the runners-up trophy and a cash award of Rs 30,000.
Meanwhile, Future Soccer Stars had things their own way and charged to a huge 7-1 win against Soccer A-Z in a one-sided First Division match. Striker Rudolf D’Souza notched up a fine hat-trick of goals while Alex Jena added two goals and Sanjay Chalavadi and Paritosh Gohil contributed one each to secure the big win. Soccer A-Z pulled one back through Shahid Qureshi’s efforts.
Result – Nadkarni Cup (final): Ambernath United-Atlanta FC 3 (Arif Shaikh 23rd min, Himanshu Patil 51st min, Abhijit Taware 90th min) beat Bank of Baroda 1 (Sanket Humbe 76th min).
First Div: Future Soccer Stars 7 (Rudolf D’Souza 3, Alex Jena 2, Sanjay Chalavadi, Paritosh Gohil) beat Soccer A-Z 1 (Shahid Qureshi).
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