Both the arch rival teams --Three Star and MMC have fixed their final date in the Nepal Bank Limited Junior (U-14) Football Tournament on Tuesday winning their respective semifinal matches. [break]
Coincidentally, both of them had a hard fought tiebreaker win over their opponents and also with identical 1-1 score in the regulation time.
Three Star beat Bansbari Club 4-2 in the tiebreaker. Three Star converted first three spot kicks while Bansbari succeeded only one among first three. Avishek Rijal, Ujal Dangol, Basanta Tamang and Avishek Lama scored for Three Star. Shekhar Khadka and Bijay Dangol scored for Bansbari.
Earlier, Bansbari had taken the fifth minute lead through Shekhar Khadka but Avishek Lama cancelled the lead six minutes later.
In other semis, MMC edged past Machhindra 1-0 in the sudden death after the tiebreaker finished in a 3-3 draw. MMC were lucky to escape the semifinal defeat despite converting only one from initial three spot kicks unlike opponents who netted all three.
Machhindra players failed to score fourth and fifth spot kicks while Sanjay Moktan and Bikash Rai converted the fourth and fifth spot kick for MMC pushing the fate of finalist to be decided through sudden death. Prasant Shrestha and Lal Bahadur Tamang squandered their successive sudden death kicks for Machhindra. Sujal Shrestha of MMC also missed the sudden death kick but Kiran Gahatraj hit the winner to seal victory for MMC.
Earlier, Arpan Rai, Surendra Bhattarai and Keshar Kumal had converted the first three spot kicks for Machhindra. Tej Lama had converted the first spot kick for MMC. The final will be held on Thursday.
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