Abung Meetei scored the all important goal for visitor in the 77th minute to send the home team crashing out ending its dream of entering the final for the first time. Meetei, adjudged the man-of-the-match, scored beating Sahara custodian Raju Yogi in pass of Nikhil Kadam, who came as replacement of L David in the very first minute of second half. [break]
Pune will take on the winner among Samsung Jawalakhel Youth Club and Mega Three Star in the semifinal to be played Wednesday. Jawalakhel and Three Star will lock horns Monday.
In the highly entertaining show both the teams created some beautiful scoring chances. The visitors were studded with five U-23 Indian national players including custodian Bhushan Patil, James Singh, F Puia, Abung Meetei and T Haokip.
In the 23rd minute, T Haokip´s powerful strike for the visiting team from the area rebounded off goalie Yogi. L David remained unlucky in the 31st minute as his shot hit the woodwork only to rebound. In the 40th minute, goalie Yogi made a valiant save to deny Suji Kumar from scoring and in the 76th minute Yogi punched F Ppuia´s freekick to send it out of the danger zone.
Home team Sahara missed a couple of attractive chances. In the 42nd minute, Rajan Adhikari´s 25-yard second bar strike hit the woodwork while opponent goalie Bhushan Patil was already beaten. In the 81st minute, Sunil BK failed to utilize custodian Patil´s rebounder of Sunil BK´s strike.
Sahara coach Kiran Shrestha termed the match to be 50/50 and pointed out lack of understanding among his players as the reason of defeat. "There was lack of coordination among players and besides this they twice failed to utilize scoring opportunities. They could not play upto expectations," Shrestha said.
"The taller and stronger opponents also had physical advantage over us," Shrestha said who lamented for losing despite getting huge support from home audience. "We will come up with improved performance in upcoming days," Shrestha shared.
Despite the win, Pune´s manager Ranjit Chaudhary expressed dissatisfaction over his side´s performance. "There is no reason to be satisfied with the performance. Boys could play better than this," Chaudhary, who took the job in Pune a year earlier resigning from Tata Academy, said. "The performance in the upcoming match will be far better than this." He however, did not disclose the strategy.
Pune had finished third in 2009/10 I-league with 42 points and currently it is in seventh position with 22 points. Pune has investment of real estate companies. "My aim is to make Pune the best team of south Asian country by 2018," Chaudhary said.
Yeti Airlines Himalayan Sherpa will take on African United in the seocnd quarterfinal to be played Sunday.
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