Brothers Union first to reach semi-finals
Brothers Union became the first team to reach the semi-finals in the Grameenphone Federation Cup beating a 10-man Dhaka Mohammedan SC 2-0 at the Kamalapur stadium on Thursday.
In the other match of the day, Sudanese forward James Saeed Moga slammed a hat-trick as Muktijoddha Sangsad KC kept their final four hopes alive with 3-0 win over Feni Soccer.
Brothers lead group B with six points while Muktijoddha have four. Mohammedan have one point while Feni Soccer are still to open their account. All the teams still have one match to play.
Brothers Union went into attack from the very beginning and their striker trio of Brazilian Everton, Cameroonian Bitcha Richards and Ghanaian Ennock Bentil were too tough for the Mohammedan defence to tackle and the black-and-white outfit were cornered to their own zone in the first half.
However, Mohammedan defenders put up a strong resistance to keep Brothers at the bay. Bitcha Richards came close to breaking the deadlock in the 17th minute but his powerful grounder was parried by Titumir.
Brothers mounted the pressure and reaped reward four minutes later as Faisal Mahmud found the back of the net. Ennock Bentil paved the way with a nice back-heel from the top of the box for Faisal who took a blistering shot that slipped out of the gloves of Mohammedan goalkeeper Titumir and slowly rolled over the goal-line
Titumir’s precise dive in the 24th minute saw Ennock Bentil’s effort from close range turn into a corner. Four minutes later Everton broke through the midfield with an Ennock Bentil through pass and guided the ball past an advancing Tiutmir but much to the dismay of the Brazilian the ball missed the side post by a few inches.
Titumir was in his brilliant best again in the 30th minute as he dived right
into the feet of Bitcha Richards in the six-yard box to deny him.
Mohammedan were reduced to a 10 men in the injury time of the first half when Nigerian defender Emeka Lucky Uti was sent off for his second bookable offence after a rough charge on Everton.
The second half was rather dull with Mohammedan taking a defensive approach and Brothers busy in keeping their lead. Substitute midfielder Toru blasted a 25-yarder in the 67th minute but Titumir was in the right position to punch the ball to safety.
However, two minutes from time Ennock Bentil went past the Mohammedan defence with a through pass from Everton and dodged past Titumir to score the second goal for his team.
Muktijoddha v Feni Soccer
Sudanese forward James Saeed Moga became the first player to notch up a hat-trick as he converted all three goals for Muktijoddha to give them a very crucial win against group’s punching bag Fenni Soccer.
Moga drew the first blood in the 10th minute grabbing Feni Soccer defender Shipon’s weak back pass towards his custodian Piru and had no difficulty to go past onrushing Piru before pocking the ball into the empty net.
The tall Sudanese doubled the margin two minutes later after midfielder Alamgir Kabir Rana paved the way with a nice through pass from the midfield and Moga hit the back of the net with a fierce grounder.
Moga completed his treble in the 77th minute as Mithun Chowdhury produced a super footwork to roll the ball between two defenders and Bukola watching Moga standing unmarked in the far post provided a square pass which was tapped in by Moga.
Bukola hit the side post with a scorcher five minutes away from the time otherwise the scoreline would have seen the goal number four.
