Yugal Kishor Rai and Shiva Shrestha scored in either half of the match to seal the victory and to set up a quarterfinal clash with National League champion Nepal Police Club.[break]
MMC, the ´A´ division giant, put ANFA U-17 boys under pressure from early moments of the match but has to toil hard to pull off the victory. Eight MMC players, who are attending training camp for national team, were not in Pokhara but four foreign players recruited by MMC gave tough time to ANFA boys.
Rai scored the first goal in the 31st minute of the match through a free-kick. U-17 goalie didn´t get any chance to stop Rai´s 30-yard shot. MMC was awarded the free-kick after Johna Thapa pulled down Samir Limbu.
MMC had a long wait before scoring the second goal that sealed the match. Shrestha scored the second goal in the 85th minute of the match. He scored in the second bar of the post from 25 yards. MMC missed some scoring chances. In the injury time of the first half, Ram Thapa provided a sublime pass to Rai but he could not score in one-on-one.
Rai´s header in a cross from Thapa sailed just above the cross bar in the 56th minute. Ngohnoah Brice´s shot in an open net in the 69th minute went wide. Brice again failed to score in the 72nd minute in a one-on-one chance.
MMC Coach Hari Om Shrestha said his team failed to score despite keeping the opponents under pressure. “It is always difficult to set a team in its first match. Meanwhile, opponents tried to bring us under pressure in absence of our senior players,” said Shrestha.
ANFA U-17 created limited scoring opportunities but could not utilize them. Johna Thapa´s header in a corner from Heman Gurung sailed above the bar in the 32nd minute while Aditya Chaudhary´s header in another corner from Gurung went above the bar in 42nd minute. Suman Lama´s shot in the 54th minute went wide. Gurung was adjudged man-of-the-match.
ANFA U-17 Coach Sunil Shrestha applauded his boys despite the loss. “We are here not to win the cup but to have match practice and boys´ put up good performance against a big club,” said Shrestha. “Poor finishing was our major problem in the match,” he added.
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