Super Division: HDFC defeat FC India while Bombay Gymkhana hold BOI

by Siddharth Yadav April 25, 2018

24th April 2018, Mumbai: Two MDFA Super Division Play-Off matches were contested on Tuesday at the Mumbai Football Arena, Andheri. In the first game, HDFC encountered FC India, whereas, Bank of India (BOI) played Bombay Gymkhana in the second game. A wasteful HDFC edged FC India narrowly after missing several clear-cut opportunities while Bombay Gymkhana held BOI in what was a match filled with poor refereeing decisions.

Group B

HDFC (Henderson Dias 85′) 1-0 FC India

HDFC goes second in Group B with a hard-fought 1-0 win over FC India in the Super Division Play-Off.  Both the outfits were pretty wasteful in front of the goal, especially HDFC’s forward Ramesh Singh who missed two sitters, one in each half. HDFC dominated the match proceedings and kept on launching the attack but their poor finishing kept disappointing them.

Siddesh Batawale had a fantastic game for HDFC  who created several opportunities for HDFC. But it was former Air India’s midfielder Henderson Dias whose perfect placement from outside the box opened the scoring in the 85th minute of the game. HDFC held their nerves and picked up their first win of the play-off.

Bank of India (BOI) (Aishwarya Belekar 20′) 1-1 Bombay Gymkhana (Rudra Sengupta 88′)

The second and final game of the day was marred by controversial decisions which turned out to be a very entertaining game at the Mumbai Football Arena. Bombay Gymkhana started brilliantly, they build their game from the back and used their pacy attacker Rushad to create space behind Bank of India’s defense. Though BOI’s Shailesh Jadhav did his job to keep Bombay Gymkhana’s attack at bay, his defensive partners failed to live up to the expectations.

Midway through the game, a Bombay Gymkhana player was tripped inside the box which was surely a penalty but the referee waived off Gymkhana’s appeal. Moments later, against the run of play, BOI’s Aishwarya Belekar produced a moment of brilliance when he curled a right-footed attempt over the goalkeeper to break the deadlock.

Gymkhana’s Harmeet and Braganza had a good game in the midfield. They kept on outmuscling  BOI’s midfield to hit them on counters but their hard work didn’t pay off due to their poor finishing. Late in the second half, Bombay Gymkhana brought on Rudra Sengupta in their quest to find the equalizing goal. In the 88th minute, a perfectly taken corner by Harmeet was spectacularly headed in by Rudra into the back of the net, leaving the score 1-1 with only a couple of minutes to play. At the final whistle, both the outfits had to settle for a point.