Azza late strike rescues Air India a point

by Chittu Shetty February 15, 2020

An injury time strike from Azza Noorani rescued a point for Air India as they held UBI to a 2-2 draw, in other game Customs breeze past Central Railway.

Mumbai Customs continue their dominance in Elite Division with another comprehensive victory this time over Central Railway.

Rinaldo Fernandes struck a first half brace to put Customs ahead at break. Akshay’s 12^th minute goal had managed to reduce the deficit for Railway to one goal and raised a hope of second half comeback. However, Railway’s found it hard to break the Customs defence and soon enough a third goal for Customs from John put the game to bed as the defending champions went to win the game 3-1.

Meanwhile in other elite division encounter, UBI were held on to a 2-2 draw by Air India courtesy of a late Azza Noorani strike. Air India took the lead in the 8^th minute when an Ariel ball from Kiran Pandre found Sanchit Bhatt on the wings, who drove into the box before passing it to an unmarked Ashiqe whose strike beat the keeper to make it 1-0.

Air India held on to the goal lead till the lemon break but early in the second half, UBI found the equalizer in a set-piece situation as Athang Kanekar converted his chance to make it 1-1. Midway through to the 2^nd half, bankers took the lead when Elwin Fernandes capitalized on a poor corner to initiate a counter-attack. The striker went to take a long range attempt then beat the Air India keeper to send his side into the lead.

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Air India retaliated with couple of good attacks of their own but failed to break the UBI defence until the fourth minute of injury time. Azza Noorani did well to balance the ball on his chest before unleashing a stunning shot of the volley to send the score on level terms.

ESIC Sports Club scored a hard-fought 2-1 win against Colaba Sports Academy in a Super Division match of the Rustomjee-MDFA League 2019-2020 and played at the Neville D’Souza ground, Bandra on Friday.

Striker Shantanu Gaikwad struck both the goals for ESIC. Gaikwad netted the first goal in the 23^rd minute and added the second in the 49^th minute to put ESIC in a good position. Colaba SA scored a late goals through Praful Solanki in the 82st minute.

Results-

Elite Division:

Mumbai Custom (Rinaldo Fernandes 5′, 26′, John 77′) 3 – 1 Central Railway (Akshay 12′)

Air India (Ashiqe Mohammed 8’, Azza Noorani 90+4’) 2 – 2 Union Bank of India (Athang Kanekar 47’, Elwin Fernandes 78’)

Super Division:

Tarun Sporting Club (Rahul Manjhi 21′, 24′, 90+1′, Khrish Singh 78′) 4 – 4 Fr.Angel Gymkhana (Hasbaam Siddique 10′, 45′, Neeraj Singh 70′, Anuj Gharat 76′)

ESIC (Shantanu Gaikwad 23′, 59′) 2 – 1 Colaba Sports Academy (Praful Solanki 81′)

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