CHANDIGRAH: On the second day of the Lt. Col. Deol Memorial tournament being held at the Sector 17 football Stadium, Chandigarh the first match saw Minerva Sharks take on the Indian Air Force.
Minerva Sharks scored a thumping 3-0 victory over The Indian Air Force. Okoro of Sharks picked up a yellow card for a rash tackle in the 20th minute. In the 30th minute a beautiful lay up by Akash Sangwan released Moinuddin who cooly beat two defenders to slot the ball home giving Minerva Sharks the lead.
The lead was on doubled 2-0 by Akash Sangwan in the 37th minute who scored from an easy rebound off the airforce keeper Manvir who had just saved a rasping shot off Harpreet Bedi only to land the ball at the feet of Akash Sangwan.
In the second half IAF tried their best to come back into the game with come quality possession football but could not covert any of the chances that came out of it. In the 58th minute Lago Bei of Minerva Sharks connected with a brilliant ball which came from the right flank and coveted to make the score 3-0.
The final score was 3-0 which was another upset for the Durand Cup bound Indian Air Force team.
The second match of the day saw a tough clash with Minerva Academy FC and Chandigarh FC taking on each other. The final score was 0-0 as CFC cunningly put 10 men behind the ball and played a defensive and counter attaching game to foil all the attempts of the Minervan forwards. But Minerva FC strikers still got plenty of opportunities and hit the bar on two different occasions but the CFC goalkeeper came up with great saves to keep Chandigarh FC alive in the match.
The second half saw more of that and even had many goal mouth scrambles but the ball just refused to go into the net for Minerva FC frustrating the players and the football lovers that gathered. Minerva brought in new signing former India Captain Clifford Miranda in the last ten minutes to try and break the deadlock but he limped of with a pulled muscle within minutes. The match ended in a 0-0 draw and Chandigarh FC were lucky to get out of a jam especially as they were missing the services of their prolific striker Aman Banwait who was suspended due to a red card in the previous match.
Both teams Minerva Academy FC and Chandigarh FC are on four points from two matches and Minerva sharks are on three points whereas Indian Air Force are yet to open their account .
Tomorrow is the last day and three teams can still win the tournament so exciting matches will be in store for the football aficionados of the city.
