Of course, Rinaldo Fernandes – the Robin to Dias’ Batman   — also impressed with his pace, work-rate, and dribbling. The warning signs were there for Railways when their goalkeeper made a hash of a clearance early in the first half. And they did concede when Dias smashed home a free kick in the 12th minute. It was one-way traffic as Air India went into offensive mode!

The second goal came when Scott D’Souza hit home a low free kick in the 25th minute. Also, Fernandes’ clever dummy during the free kick ritual caught the eye! Of course, his slaloming runs from the left flank had the Railways defenders in disarray. One such run allowed him to cross to Sumesh Nair who scored the third goal in the 30th minute.

As the first-half ended…Railways looked down and out! Come the second-half and Air India persisted with a high-pressing and attacking game. And it paid off when Dias tapped home a rebound in the 56th minute after the Railways defenders had failed to clear a cross. Railways did get a consolation goal when Chetan Waghela scored off a header in the 73th minute.

And as Dias glanced home the fifth goal in the 75th minute…it proved to be the icing on the cake! Dias’ finishing and Fernandes’ bull-terrier-like approach made the difference for Air India.

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Although it was Central Bank of India (CBI) who opened the scoring through Kuldeep Maschi, the mighty Air India responded brilliantly to score two first-half goals to register consecutive wins in the ongoing Elite Division campaign.

Air India came in the match on the back of a comprehensive 8-1 win over Mumbai Strikers. Despite Rinaldo Fernandes absence from the squad yesterday, Godfred Pereira’s side made sure to hold their nerves against an energetic CBI side.

In the 8th minute of the match, Air India’s Pramod Pandey handled the ball in the penalty area which gave CBI a huge opportunity to open the scoring. Defender Kuldeep Maschi stepped up and comfortably placed his effort in the back of the net.

Air India responded in their very own style as experience defender Santosh Koli levelled the score midway into the first-half with a looping header. A few minutes later, Air India scored again and swiftly took a cushion lead.

Aaron D’Costa found Pratik Koli across the goal who tapped in from close range to give Air India a 2-1 lead. The second-half saw Air India defending for their lives to hold their solitary lead. New signing Tejas Raut, a lanky defender, was brought in to shield Air India’s goal.

Amey Bhatkal was also introduced late in the second-half who had a wonderful time up front against CBI’s defenders. Twisting and Turning in, the young player displayed an impressive performance which left CBI’s defenders in a worry.

After this win, Air India is comfortably sitting at the top with six points in two games with a staggering goal difference of +8. As for CBI, they performed quite well against an organised Air India side and they should take away positives from the match.

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In the evening, with both teams displaying a high profile attacking football at both the ends took a twist during the 17^th minute when Air India threw a counter attack against the railways as Reed Santos assisted a through ball to Pratik Koli  resulting an opener for the Red Army in the near left bracket of the goal post leaving Grinto K Antao no chance but collect the ball from the back of the net.

Later in the 25th minute, an injury to the defender of the Western Railways brought them down to 10 men where the Red team took advantage. In the 27th minute once again, Reed Santos found Mrunal Tandel just outside the box who fired it into the goal for the Air India at the right far post.

Reed Santos continued the rhythm with the ball passing it on to Pratik Koli who was taken down by Clayton D’souza. The collision cost Western Railway a penalty & a red card to Clayton from Referee Rahul Gupta.

Mrunal Tandel stepped out to take the penalty and placed it neatly on the right bottom side of the post but was beautifully saved by Grinto K Antao.

Into the 38^th minute, Western Railway continued to play one man down.

Just before the half time whistle Prakash Thorat from the left flank helped Pratik Koli score his brace in style as he nutmegged the goalie in a one on one situation which made it 3-0 for the Red Army during half time.

The half time team talk didn’t really work for the Yellow outfit as in the 52^nd minute a left-footed strike from Reed Santos probably the Man Of The Match got a smart assist from Aaron D’costa converting it into the fourth goal of the match.

Minutes after the goal, the player of the moment Reed Santos got into the referee’s notebook for a foul on defender Vijesh Vijayan and earned a yellow card.

Later in the dying minutes of the game, a corner was awarded to the red team which was converted by substitute Shrikant Molangiri in the center of the goal making it 5-0 at full time.

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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

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Sumit Kuvekar celebrates his goal against Freunds FC

A cloudy october afternoon a rare sight in October, was the backdrop of the 2nd division game between Air India WR and Freunds FC. Freund FC looked no match to the Air India side right from the start of the game and fell behind as early as 5th minute into the first half as Air India’s Sumit Kuvekar opened the scoring. Amit Karia joined in the party at 12 minutes to double the lead. Sumit Kuvekar got another goal at the stroke of 18th minute. Freunds fc tried to attack the mighty Air India team but could not not manage any penetration worth a chance. Sumit Kuvekar completed his hattrick in the 26th minute. Air India were 4-0 up in the game and looked to add more to the tally in the first half but a series of off sides ruled away as many as 3 goals. Every time Air India had the ball the strikers seemed to excited and landed in the off side.

At the half time Shyam Sawant and Prasad Shetty had a pep talk with the boys to improve on their tally and avoid offsides. In the other camp the team had slumped to this ruthless Air India play and had a quiet break only backing each other to stand strong. As play resumed it was Air India who were on the back foot with a surprise attack but the goalkeeper Sawant managed to keep it away. In the 40th minute Kalpesh Rane emulated his elder brother Jayesh Rane who scored for Chennayin FC last night in the Indian Super League. Edgar rodrigues rounded the Freunds keeper for the 6th goal as Sumit Kuvekar scored his 4th in the 67th minute. Freunds FC’s young goalkeeper Manav Damani had his brilliant moments as he kept away Air India a number of times, however the score line does not suggest that but the Air India Coaches applauded his every save from the dug out. Freunds FC had their consolation in the 69th minute thru Ivan Louis who seized the opportunity from the communication error in the Air India defence. The game ended Air India 7-1 Freunds FC with four goals for Sumit Kuvekar and some praise for Manav Damani.

Watch the Photo gallery http://www.footballcounter.com/2016/photo-album-mdfa-div-ii-air-india-wr-vs-freunds-fc/

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Full match report : http://www.footballcounter.com/2016/air-india-thrash-freunds-fc/

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