Muktijoddha Sangsad beat Chittagong Abahani 3-2 and Brothers Union beat Bangladesh Police 2-1 to book their spots in the knock-out stages of the Walton Federation Cup at the Bangabandhu National Stadium on Sunday. Muktijoddha’s Group B victory also put defending champions Sheikh Russell KC, who beat Chittagong Abahani earlier, through to the quarter-finals.
Muktijoddha and Sheikh Russell will play to determine the group winner on Tuesday.
Muktijoddha Sangsad jumped out to a 3-0 lead against Chittagong Abahani, who made Sheikh Russell work for a 1-0 win earlier, and withstood a late charge to hold on for a 3-2 victory and quarter-final qualification.
Chittagong Abahani scored two goals to get back into the game against Muktijoddha Sangsad, who played defensively in the latter stages.
Mohammed Biplob followed after Aminul Haque’s 12th minute shot and slid in to knock in Muktijoddha’s first goal. He then fed a through ball assist to Nigeria’s Nkwocha Kingsley, who made no mistake to double the lead in the 43rd minute.
Biplob completed his brace for Muktijoddha in the 54th minute, when Kingsley found him unmarked in the penalty area and he buried the ball in the back of the net.
Chittagong Abahani fought back valiantly, and striker Shohel Mia reduced the deficit to 3-1 in the 58th minute to make things interesting.
Substitute Javed Khan scored a spectacular long distance strike in injury time, but it was not enough to keep Chittagong Abahani, who fell to their second defeat of the competition, alive in the tournament, with opportunities like Nazrul Islam’s shot off the crossbar on 71 minutes looming large.
Brothers Union overcame a 1-0 deficit to beat Bangladesh Police 2-1 to clinch their own quarter-final berth. Bangladesh Police, who have one point from their 2-2 draw with BJMC, now need Brothers to beat BJMC by more than one goal on Tuesday to give them the second Group C quarter-final berth.
Bangladesh Police put up another spirited show, this time against falling giants Brothers Union but they could not avert their first defeat in three matches.
Bangladesh Police shocked Syed Nayemuddin’s Brothers Union when Kabirul Islam, who also scored against BJMC struck on 18 minutes and continued to hold their own against their favoured opponents.
Brothers’ defender Pronob Kumar Das finally brought his side level in the 41st minute after his strike from outside the box was deflected in by a Bangladesh Police defender.
A 64th minute lob from Faisal Mahmud gave Brothers the winner.
Bangladesh Police came close to coming away a draw, but Ruhul Amin’s strike in the 67th minute hit the Brothers Union side-netting.
RESULTS
Brothers Union 2 (Pronab 41, Faisal 64) v Bangladesh Police AC 1 (Kabirul 19); Muktijoddha Sangsad 3 (Biplob 1, 54, Kingsley43) v Ctg Abahani 2 (Sohel 58, Zaved 90+3).
-With New Age input
