Kings breeze into semis
Defending champions Bashundhara Kings made it into the last four of the Walton Federation Cup for the third successive season by notching a 2-0 win over Sheikh Jamal in the third quarterfinal at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday.
Argentine forward Rahul Oscar Becerra gave Kings a first-half lead before Brazilian forward Robson Da Silva struck the second to put the game to bed late into the second half against the three-time Federation Cup champions, who have not progressed past the semifinals in four editions since their last triumph in 2015.
National-player-studded Kings dominated Sheikh Jamal as many expected and had a few chances before Becerra got the lead in the 10th minute, scoring from a placed shot after Brazilian midfielder Jonathon Da Fernandes Reis delivered a nice cross into the box. Kings' fit-again midfielder Masuk Mia Jonny then tried his luck from distance before defender Mozzamel Hossain Nira rescued Sheikh Jamal with a goal-line clearance in the 34th minute.
Sheikh Jamal looked better in the last 10 minutes of the first half and created three chances but forwards Zahid Hossain and Omar Jobe failed to capitalise.
After resumption, Kings maintained their stranglehold and created three good chances, but Robson and Becerra squandered the opportunities despite being one-on-one with the goalkeeper. Robson only sealed the victory in the 90th minute with a low free-kick after Sheikh Jamal goalkeeper Mamun Khan fouled Jonathon on the edge of the box.
Kings' Spanish coach Oscar Bruzon was happy to have qualified for the semifinals for the third successive time but felt his should have won the match by a greater margin."My point of few is that the match was very tactical for both sides as Sheikh Jamal tried to make our backline tense instead of the build-up game but our backline has been very solid which is a big difference compared to last season," said Bruzon. "We missed a lot of open chances and I feel every game should have been different in terms the margin of victory but the most important thing is to win the match and go to the next stage. I think our team is looking solid and confident and ready to fight in every step to win the title."
Bruzon's counterpart Shafiqul Islam Manik was happy with his team's performance but unhappy with the performance of referee Bitu Raj Barua.
"Although we missed key players like Kesto Kumar, Rezaul Karim and Sulayman Sillah, the boys played like we played in last matches. We were beaten in two ways as the forwards could not avail the scoring opportunities before conceding and they could not reimburse the goal despite having good scoring chances. Otabek and Jobe should have struck goals today," Manik said, adding that the match could have been more entertaining had the standard of the referee been better.
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