Air India-Century Rayon ends in a seven-goal thriller

by Siddharth Yadav March 16, 2019

15th March 2019, Mumbai: On Friday evening, Air India encountered Century Rayon in the MDFA Elite Division (Corporate Group) at the Neville D’Souza Ground (Bandra). In what was undoubtedly the best game of the campaign so far, Air India scored two late goals to turn around the match and snatch an unlikely 4-3 win against an energetic Rayon side.

Air India who lost their first game of the season at the hands of their rivals ONGC, responded with a sparkling 5-0 win against Dena Bank in the next match, looked a bit shaky once again when they met Century Rayon. Right from the kick-off, Rayon looked threatening up front and caused serious problems for Air India’s defense.

Sagar Bedekar scored twice in space of ten minutes which gave Rayon a splendid 2-0 lead inside half an hour. Air India’s backline was left stunned. Although Air India kept the majority of the ball possession, it was Rayon’s clinical finish which put them in the driver’s seat.

In the second-half, Suraj Negi cut short the deficit after a wonderful glancing header in the 51st minute before Tejas Raut equalized through a brilliant penalty in the 70th minute. With the game evenly poised at 2-2, Century Rayon restored their lead through Thotchan with a sublime strike.

It seemed that Rayon had done their job but there was a late twist in the tale. Just two minutes after conceding, Aditya Dalvi leveled the score with a neat finish for the mighty Air India. Rather than sitting back and salvage for a draw, Air India went for the kill and in the 87th minute, in an attempt to cross into the box, Himanshu Rao found the back of the net to snatch an unlikely win right in the end for Air India.