Nepal Police Club beat Manang Marshyagdi Club to enter semifinal

2014-03-18
Departmental team Nepal Police Club (NPC) beat league champions and defending champions Manang Marshyagdi Club (MMC) by 2-1 goals to enter semifinal of the 5th Simara Gold Cup 2014 at Simara on Tuesday. Nirajan Malla put MMC ahead in the 16th minute before Ganesh Khadka leveled the score in the 30th minute and Bharat Shah scored a match winning goal in the 57th minute.

Cops started the match in impressive note and they almost took an early lead in the 8th minute of the match but Ganesh Khadka failed to utilize the chance. MMC did not have their star players like Anil Gurung, Deepak Rai, Shiva Shrestha, Sujal Shresha and Bishal Shrestha, all of them are in national camp. Likewise, Bhola Nath Silwal, Ritesh Thapa also did not feature for NPC in today’s match as they are also in national camp. Cops forward Bharat Shah did his best to penetrate MMC’s defense line up to 10th minute but Shah failed to find the net. The first good chance of MMC came in the 13th minute when Nirajan Malla’s free kick was well punched by cop’s custodian Bishal Shrestha. However Malla scored in the 16th minute of the match when he found the header on a cross of Yona Elias to take 1-0 up against NPC and it was Nirajan Malla’s first goal after a year. MMC looked confident after this goal and they almost doubled their lead in the 17th minute but Sulav Maskey’s kick from outside the box went little above the bar. NPC wasted a chance to level the score in the 22nd minute Dipen Shrestha failed to score in one vs one situation Shrestha’s kick was nicely saved by MMC’s custodian Brijesh Singh. NPC leveled the score in the 30th minute when Ganesh Khadka’s superb footwork kissed the net to make 1-1. After equalizing the score cops looked confident and Nira Kumar Rai’s superb attempt was well blocked by MMC player Rupesh KC in the 36th minute. In the second half NPC played good football but they failed to utilize the free kick in the 50th minute. MMC’s skipper Nirajan Malla also missed a golden chance to take a lead in the 55th minute his shot went little wide. NPC took a lead in the 57th minute when inform forward Bharat Shah utilized a cross off Ajit Bhandari to make cops 2-1 up against MMC and with this goal Shah pushed his goal tally to 3 in this tournament. MMC tried their best to level the score in the 67th minute but Heman Gurung’s corner kick was well headed by Sunil BK but BK’s header was easily cleared by cop’s defender. MMC almost leveled the score in the 77th minute but cops fresh custodian Bishal Shrestha did a world class save to deny Deepak Bhusal. Custodian Shrestha was also smart enough to deny Nirajan Malla, Yona Elias and Sulav Maskey in the 80th minute, 83rd minute and 89th minute respectively. In the remaining time MMC failed to break the deadlock of NPC and match ended in favor of NPC by 2-1 goals. With this win NPC knockout defending champions MMC and succeed to enter the semifinal of the tournament.