The game began at a frantic pace with both teams attacking at either end to gain the all important lead. Companeroes defence managed to keep KSA’s in form striker Ahiri Uchela at bay by clearing their lines from Ryan Kolarikkal’s continuous penetrative crosses from the left. The KSA defence on the other hand were caught surprised as they had to deal with an unknown measure in Companeroes debutant & new foreign recruit Steven Olyevuchi, his speed and strength proved to be menacing on quite a few occasions, early in the first half.

Karnataka Sporting were caught on the back foot midway through the first half, when a shot by Reed Santos clearly came off the hand of one of their defenders inside the box, the referee made no hesitation in pointing to the spot. KSA had their goalkeeper Kishen Sulegai to thank, after he pulled of a brilliant save from Jardin Braganza’s penalty kick, diving to his right.

The 2nd half saw KSA  pressing higher with Souvaid Ansari and Valentine Pereira pulling the strings from midfield. Ahiri Uchela did well to keep Companeroes custodian Wren D’Abreo on his toes, after he managed to make some attempts on goal despite close attention from Fazil Sheikh. The Nigerian was handed a brilliant opportunity in the 60th minute when he was put through the middle by Tarique Ansari but it was an outstretched Wren D’Abreo’s fingertips that denied KSA the lead.

Companeroes got back into the game with some consistent passing in the midfield as Joshua Vessaokar and Reed Santos combined well to take the Red and Yellow attack forward. Their efforts paid dividends in the 74th minute when Steven Olyevuchi latched on to a loose ball outside the KSA box, after a cross from the left was not properly dealt with. Steven’s square pass was perfectly met by Joshua, who made a clever run into the box and unleashed a rasping shot with his left foot. The goal came as a big boost to Companeroes talisman Joshua Vessaokar, making his return to the team after a year’s absence.

KSA tried to claw their way back into the game dominating possession and making attempts at the Companeroes goal but were denied on every occasion. The frustration took to them as Ahiri Uchela was shown the red card for an off the ball incident in the 80th minute, when he deliberately elbowed Fazil Sheikh in the face. The task got all the more difficult for KSA, being down to 10 men. Companeroes Nigerian import Steven Olyevuchi had a glorious opportunity to grab his debut goal and further the lead in the closing stages but was unfortunate to see his effort come off the upright with KSA keeper Kishen Sulegai rooted to the spot.

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ONGC and Companeroes SC had already met each other this season in the Quarter Finals of the Nadkarni Cup, where Companeroes produced a stunning defensive display to earn a goalless draw, only to be knocked out on penalties.

But there wasn’t to be a repeat of that performance, as ONGC took just nine minutes to breach the Companeroes rearguard with Kailash Patil heading home a fine cross from the right flank, to set ONGC on their way.

The goal seemed to flatten Companeroes who found themselves behind despite not doing much wrong in the opening ten minutes. But there was more misery in store for Companeroes as ONGC doubled their lead in the 21st minute as Kailash Patil got his second of the game, when he tapped in from close range after Joel Sequeira had diverted a cross from ONGC’s right flank goal wards.

ONGC made it 3-0, just a minute later, with Kailash Patil completing his hat-trick with a brilliant long range effort which found the back of the net, despite Companeroes goalkeeper Wren Dabreo getting a fist to it.

The day went from bad to worse for Companeroes, as referee Rahul awarded ONGC a penalty in the 27th minute for a handball by Companeroes’ Jardin Braganza.
Bhola Prasad stepped up for ONGC but blasted his kick over the crossbar, much to Companroes’ relief. The missed penalty seemed to stem the flow of chances for ONGC, but they continued to boss proceedings leaving the Companeroes’ front men to feed on scraps.

There were no signs of a Companeroes recovery as the referee blew for half time. ONGC were having a field day at the office as Companeroes had it all to do in the second half.

Companeroes did begin the second half with a lot more belief, but failed to work Agnelo Gomes, who was in goal for ONGC. Bhola Prasad nearly made up for his penalty miss, when he unleashed a vicious drive which went flying past the upright. It was a great attempt from the ONGC No.6.
ONGC’s Lavino Fernandes headed home from a couple of feet in the 61st minute, but the goal was ruled out for offside. Companeroes missed a great chance to equalize in the 67th minute, when a cross from the right flank evaded everyone in the box and found Jardin Braganza in space, but he couldn’t keep his effort on target.

ONGC made no mistake at the other end as they added another in the 69th minute through Joel Sequeira who was unmarked at the far post to tap in a Hassan Mohammed Adyola cross from the right flank.
Six minutes later, ONGC scored again with Kailash Patil getting his fourth of the afternoon. This was the pick of the goals, as Kailash Patil cut in from the right flank, to send a curler into the top corner.

ONGC missed two good chances in the 85th minute, as F.Lalmuanpuia’s attempt was brilliantly saved Wren Dabreo before Lavino Fernandes shot wide after finding space in the Companeroes penalty area.

Shabaz Khan missed a great chance to get Companeroes on the score sheet in the 90th minute after he was one on one with the ONGC goalkeeper. The referee drew Companeroes out of their misery as he blew for full time as there was no stoppage time.

ONGC were dominant from the first minute and the result was never really in doubt.

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PIFA’s raced to a three goal lead at half time and finished the job in the end despite Companeroes pulling one back after half time.

PIFA Colaba dominated the early stages of play as they had the majority of possession. But Companeroes defended astutely, reducing PIFA to very few openings until the 10th minute when PIFA’s Deep Morjani and Zeeshan Shaikh played a nice one-two but Deep Morjani failed to deliver a telling cross.

At the other end, Mudasir Ansari and Arun Patil tried to successfully replicate PIFA’s movement. But it was intervened by the PIFA defender at the expense of a corner. Companeroes appealed for a handball two minutes later when Pratik Patil’s shot seemed to have hit a PIFA defender’s hand. The referee waved off the appeals.

PIFA slowly started to get in the game as the Companeroes goal was under siege as PIFA were probing the Companeroes defence. It eventually cracked, when Alves Ozawara did brilliantly to set Zeeshan Shiakh on his was who held his nerves to finish past Wren D’Abreo to give PIFA a deserved lead in the 24th minute.

The goal boosted PIFA as they began to pepper the Companeroes goal and suddenly the Companeroes seemed lacking in confidence. Zeeshan Shaikh had two chances to double PIFA’s lead when Ganesh Kamat found him six yards out from the goal but he took too much time shoot allowing Comaneoes backline to recover.

But PIFA eventually doubled their lead when Kunal Narkar’s clumsy challenge on Ganesh Kamat prompted the referee to point to the spot. Alves Ozawara stepped up to convert in the 33rd minute to give PIFA a two goal cushion.

PIFA continued to boss the game as Companeroes failed to conjure up any chance of their own. PIFA then capped off a brilliant half with their third goal as Ganesh Kamath tapped in from close range in the 45th minute.

The referee blew for half time as PIFA Colaba made their dominance count. Companeroes needed stern introspection if they were to find their way back into the game or at least avoid a drubbing.

The second half had similar pattern as PIFA looked the more threatening. Although they couldn’t make a free kick count in the 51st minute. But Companeroes pulled one back seven minutes later when as Arun Patil ran into the space on the left wing and crossed for Reed Santos who finished emphatically over the keeper to give Companeroes hope.

Alves Ozawara responded immediately as his volley from a Zeeshan Shaikh cross was inches over. But he did not fail to make it 4-1, in the 64th minute when he headed home from close range to restore PIFA’s three goal lead.
Three minutes later Companeroes nearly got another one when Mudasir Ansari send his shot in the side netting after he was laid off brilliantly from a Companeroes midfielder.

In the 74th minute, Zeeshan Shaikh is was nearly sent clear by Alves Ozawara, but some brilliant defending from the Companeroes center back who put in a strong tackle, just at the right time to stop the attack.

Both teams made some changes with fifteen minutes left to play as Alves Ozawara was taken off to be replaced by Lester Creado, while Companeroes brought on Ravi Kanajia in pace of Arun Patil.

The Companeroes substitute nearly made an impact when his shot was deflected for a corner. The deflection had the PIFA goalkeeper scrambling. The game lacked any intensity as PIFA just tried to kill the game off while Companeroes knew the result was beyond them with just two minutes to play.

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Companeroes started well with most of the possession and attacking moves in the first quarter of the the game. In the 17th minute they had  a very good opportunity to open the scoring, when their left half Mudasir Ansari initiated a move and played a pass across to Reed Santos, who put the ball forward to Nikhil Pal for the finish but he squandered the chance as his shot went well over the bar.

Later the game took a turn as Companeroes took the back seat and  it was MSP who were in the driving position as they began to dominate the play. They come close to having the lead, when a direct long throw of Yukti Thombre was misjudged by Companeroes defender Jardin in the defence, laying the ball on a platter for MSP but Azhar Shaikh and Imran Shaikh clashed with each other as both of them went for the same ball.

Just two minutes late, another beautiful through ball by Faraz Shaikh set up Azhar for a one on one chance that was well intercepted by Companeroes goalkeeper Wren D’Abreo. MSP looked dangerous with every passing opportunity, in the 24 the minute they were unfortunate again as Nitin Warthi’s header from a corner kick taken by Faraz went straight into the hands of Wren D’Abreo.

It was the MS Police trio. Faraz Shaikh, Azhar Shaikh and Sandip Badkar who proved to be a deadly combination as they punished Companeroes for their mistakes. The cops finally went a goal up in the 41st minute though Azhar Shaikh, as he received a through ball from Sandip Badkar, this time he made no mistake to put his team in the lead.

The young Companeroes looked lost in the game and struggled to make any movement and conceded another goal late in the first half . Sandip Badkar and Faraz Shaikh’s combined effort did the trick for Police. Badkar started off with a good run from the centre and as he drew the defenders towards himself, he played the ball out towards Faraz, who sent the ball swirling into the top corner.

Second half started in entertaining fashion with Companeroes make shift striker Jardin Braganza being moved up from defence he looked menacing as he shook the MS Police backline. He began with a brilliant run towards goal after winning the ball from the Police half line but the MSP goalkeeper did well to block of Jardin’s attempt.

Another chance to get back into game went wasted, when an aerial ball from the right flank by Nikhil Pal was headed back across goal by  Mudasir Ansari it was Jardin again who latched onto the ball but his attempted header was over the bar.

Maharashta Police tried to relieve the pressure as they kept penetrating the Companeroes defence at regular intervals. Companeroes final attempt to reduce the margin came in the 73rd minute, when a through ball by Daniel D’souza opened up play for Aniket Shigvan but MS Police defender Jitesh Pardhi impeaded him earning himself a yellow card in the process and awarding a free kick to Companeroes right outside the box. With Reed Santos standing over the free kick, the expectation was that he would repeat the same feat as he did with a free kick against Dena Bank but this time it wasn’t to be, as he fired the ball straight into the MSP wall.

MS Police were still in a position to get more goals and that exactly happened in the 86th minute when the same 3 man combination worked for the Policemen. A throw in by Badkar towards Faraz was headed back to him and Badkar put in a pin point cross from the right flank that was tapped in by Azhar for his 2nd and the team’s 3rd goal.

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Mumbai customs played an outstanding come back in the second half, they overcome from a goal deficit scored by Hekmat singh in the 64^th minute, when Sagar Bedekar wrongly brought down by Vivek singh kaira awarded a free kick to custom, Praneel Mendon’s power full shot got fumbled through goalkeeper Razak devsur’s hand landed into Hekmat Singh’s feet and then the joy of happiness among the entire crew.

Each half dedicated to Air India, Mumbai custom respectively. Air india took control over the game at the beginning only. N D Opara foreign recruit is tough to handle for Mumbai custom’s defenders, he keeps trying very frequently and made custom goal keeper Lihaz Koya busy in the box. Foreign recruit Emanuel Aja scored through a beautiful header, Monish Bhamre pull down Air India’s Jonychand sign awarded a free kick to Yogesh Rawat to curl the ball for Emanuel’s to test his heading skill.

Both the team were on their toes to get more numbers on the scoreboard but couldn’t make more than one and match ended with 1-1 and the result would be decided into a tie breaker. For Air India Emanuel Aja, Bhusan tumbe, N D Opara scored where as for Mumbai custom Kevin Patric was the lone scorer. Air Inida’s Allan Dias missed the target; his shot was easy save for Lihaz Koya. Mumbai custom had bad luck as their first two attempts got saved, Sajjad Alam and substitute Zinto zose and later Ashirwad hegde joined the club. The Match had a nice pace and got some hard and rough tackles, Referee Gadhe had nice control over the game, he booked two Air India players; Yogesh Rawat, Sidharth Nayak and Mumbai  custom’s Hekmat singh for yellow cards.

Other played matches – Pre quarter final

RCF & GM S.C

RCF won by 2 goals to NIL   2 – 0
Scorers for RCF Ajoy Kumar Singh scored the 1st goal by neatly tapping the ball with a fine placement to the right of the Goal keeper in the 40th minute & 2nd goal was scored in the 70th minute by Piyokumar with a neat placement to the far corner of the net.

AIR INDIA V/S Union Bank.

AIR INDIA won the match 2 – 1.
AIR INDIA Opened the account through Jonychand Singh in the 51st minute and the 2nd goal was scored by N.D. Opara in the 79th minute during the run of play which ultimately turned out to be the match winner. Aaron D’cost reduced the margin by scoring the lone goal for Union Bank.

M.S. POLICE v/s KENKRE FC

M.S.POLICE WON 3 – 1
Abdul Jaffar scored 2 goals and 1 Goal scored by Mohsin Mohammed.
For Kenkre the lone scorer was Yash Mhatre.

ONGC    v/s   COMPANEROES

ONGC 3 COMPANEROES NIL
Kailash Patil scored 2 goals in 4 minutes midway in the second half &
3rd Goal for ONGC came through Sathish.

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