Vijith Shetty proves to be the difference as Air India defeat Mumbai Customs

by Siddharth Yadav November 16, 2016

16th November 2016: In the third game of MDFA (Mumbai District Football Association) Elite Division, Air India faced Mumbai Customs in a close encounter at Cooperage Stadium, Churchgate on Wednesday evening. Vijith Shetty heroics led Air India to victory as they notched up a hard-fought 2-0 win against a strong Mumbai Customs side.

What turned out to be a highly intense fixture, both the teams performed at their very best but the more experience one out of the two sides came on at the top. In the first-half, Air India and Mumbai Customs, both created numerous openings but couldn’t manage to deliver the final blow.

Hekmat Singh, Deepak Irmali, Rinaldo Fernandes, and Nazeef Chembakassery had a fine game for Mumbai Customs. As usual, Deepak and Rinaldo linked up pretty well to create opportunities. Right from the defence to attack, the Customs’ kept their composure to inflict pressure on Air India.

Meanwhile, Air India also had their very own experienced and quality players at disposal. Captain Vijith Shetty, Subhas Chakraborty, and Santosh Koli put up a brilliant performance to cause serious threats to Mumbai Customs.

Both the sides went into the break with the score tied at 0-0. In the second-half, after battling out each other for more than half an hour, Air India finally managed to break down Mumbai Customs’ resilient backline to take the lead in the 71st minute.

A brilliant free-kick by Vijith Shetty was headed home by defender Anuraj Sidhu to open the scoring just before Vijith Shetty set up yet another goal when he brilliantly put a pinpoint ball across the goal to Sunny Thakur, who scored past Mumbai Customs’ goalkeeper Lihaz Kaya to increase Air India’s lead by two goals.

Conceding two goals in two minutes broke Mumbai Customs’ resilient and yet again Air India managed to snatch away all three points by displaying a courageous effort to start their Elite Division campaign on a positive note.

Please click here for the photo album of the match