MORANG, April 5: The departmental team Tribhuvan Army Club has advanced into the semifinals of the ongoing fifth Birat Gold Cup football tournament with a 4-2 tiebreaker win over the other departmental team Nepal Police Club on Wednesday.
The match, which was played at the Shahid Stadium, was pushed into extra time after the teams played a goalless draw in regulated time. The match went into tiebreaker as none of the sides scored any goal even in the 30-minute extra time.
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Bharat Khawas, George Prince Karki, Deepak Gurung and Bibek Basnet scored in the tiebreaker for the winning team, while only Suman Lama and Dinesh Rajbanshi converted the spot kicks for Police.
Both the teams got series of good chances throughout the match but failed to convert them. The first attack came from Police in the third minute, but Hem Tamang’s shot from just outside the box went out of the frame. Army got a chance in the sixth minute through a counter attack move, but Prince Karki’s shot was blocked by Rajbanshi and Police got the ball and ran with the ball, but his shot went wide.
Another chance came to Police when Buddha Lama and Abhishek Rijal played a one-two, but the attempt was brilliantly saved by Army goalkeeper Bikesh Kuthu. Another shot from Police’s Hem Tamang was saved by Kuthu yet again after just a minute.
Army got a free kick in the 55th minute taken by Prince Karki, but a fantastic save from Shatrughan Chaudhary denied him from scoring.
