Air India hold their nerves to defeat a courageous Kenkre FC side

by Siddharth Yadav November 27, 2015

Air India booked their place in the Final of RCF Nadkarni Cup Football Tournament 2015-16 for the second time in a row after getting the better of Kenkre FC 1-0 on 27th November, 2015.

Star striker Neil Gaikwad continued his goal scoring form with a fine 25 yards strike which turned out to be the winning goal.

Although Kenkre FC played their heart out against the mighty Air India as they managed to kept their attacking spearheads quiet for the majority of the match.

Air India who has been scoring goals for fun in this year’s Tournament were finding it difficult to penetrate into their defense.

On the 10th minute, Neil Gaikwad gave Air India a 1-0 lead, where he found the net from 25 yards. From here onwards, Kenkre FC stood like a wall infront of the goals.

Taha Kachwala, Samuel Bradley were the attacking spearheads for Kenkre but Air India too showed their defensive qualities to shut down Kenkre.

On the brink of the half-time, Kenkre FC’s head coach Salim Pathan was shown marching orders for reacting against Referee’s decision.

Kenkre’s Prathamesh Rokade came close to equalize when his curling effort was well saved by Air India’s Ubaid CK on the 54th minute.

Minutes later, Air India’s Aaron D’Costa was set on goal by Raynier Fernandes, the former controlled the ball on the edge of the box and lashed his shot towards the left hand post but only to see his shot getting blocked by Kenkre’s Shivakumar.

Air India again came close to double their narrow lead when Sunny Thakur launched a right footed shot which sailed over the bar.

Kenkre FC started to push their players up to find a late equalizer but Air India held their nerves to register a hard fought win to make their way into the Final, which will be played on Monday against either Mumbai FC or Mumbai Customs.

Photo gallery: Mumbai FC 1-0 Union Bank of India – 109th Nadkarni Cup

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