Despite HDFC’s two-goal lead in the first-half Railways fought back in the second to clinch a draw.

HDFC opened the scoring as Prakyath Shetty scored off a penalty in the 26th minute.

They scored again when Sherwin Gonsalves smashed home a superb shot in the 35th minute.

But Railways didn’t give up as they pressed on to get a goal before half-time.

Shabaz Pathan’s superb sliding tackle to dispossess HDFC’s Jayesh Naik was proof of Railways’ resilience!

The first-half ended 2-0 in HDFC’s favor.

Come the second-half and Railways’ persistence paid off with a penalty for handball in the 53rd minute.

Pathan made no mistake from the spot as he slammed home a powerful shot to make it 2-2.

Railways defended stoutly to frustrate HDFC in the later stages.

And as Akshay Kamble’s shot from the left swung into goal in the 70th minute…the comeback was complete!

Naik made a solo run into the Railways area in the dying minutes but could only shoot wide from the edge of the box.

The 2-2 draw was as good as a win for Railways!

Also Read: MDFA ELITE DIVISION: Kenkre FC-GMSC game abandoned

Also Read: Tricky but still very possible! A look at India’s Knockout round chances 

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Pratik Koli proved to be the hero for Air India as he notched up a fine hat-trick, whereas, Prakash Thorat scored twice to complete a 5-0 victory over HDFC.

The former Union Bank of India striker Pratik Koli opened the scoring in the 24th minute which was followed by another goal in the very next minute. Air India took control of the proceedings and once again punished HDFC on counter as Prakash Thorat scored the third goal.

Midway into the second-half, Prakash Thorat made it 4-0 before Pratik Koli completed his hat-trick with a fantastic finish in the injury time.

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Union Bank of India 5-0 West Zone United

A stellar display from Union Bank of India left West Zone United speechless after thumping the Super Division side 5-0 in their one sided clash at St. Xavier’s Ground, Parel.

A goal each by Rohel Shaikh, Leander Dharmai, Vinod Pandey, Mohammad Ishaq and Digvijay Yadav send the Elite Division side into the last eight, which will be played tomorrow.

HDFC 2-0 Century Rayon

Century Rayon suffered a shock defeat as they went down 2-0 against a clinical HDFC side. Jisto Fonseca and Leroy Almeida scored for HDFC which proved to be enough to prevail into the next round.

Century Rayon did played well, but they were not upto the mark in the attacking third which came back to haunt them later.

Air India 0-0 Dena Bank (Air India wins 4-2 on penalties) 

Air India, the giants of Mumbai Football had to go through penalty shootout in order to defeat a determined Dena Bank side.

At the end of the normal time, both the teams were goalless which took the match into penalties, and it was Air India who held their nerves to qualify for the quarter-finals stage.

It was Dena Bank’s goalkeepr Asif Ansari’s brilliant saves and reflexes which kept the score goalless, although Asif failed to emulate the same display in the penalty shootout.

Dena Bank missed two of their penalties, whereas Air India converted all the four penalties with Shravan Shetty scoring the deciding one.

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