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It was a reminiscent of last year’s Independence Cup when the match had to be separated via penalties. Ravikant Naidu opened the scoring through a spectacular volley in the 16th minute, it was undoubtedly one of the best goals of the Tournament.

Indian Navy fought back through Anoop Pauly’s goal in the 26th minute. Both the team had their chances but couldn’t convert it.

Just before Ravikant’s volley goal, teammate Merwin Stephen too tried from distance but his powerful volley was comfortably saved.  Indian Navy’s Abhishek Joshi suffered a horrible injury when he landed awkwardly on his right hand, he was straightaway substituted by the coach.

The match went into penalties where Indian Navy’s Bhaskar Roy made couple of tremendous saves.  Somi P.T missed a crucial penalty for Western Railways, and few minutes later Prabal penalty was brilliantly kept out by Bhaskar Roy.

Shahir stepped up for Indian Navy and converted it to win Independence Cup 2016 for his side. Captain Raman Rai received the glittering trophy to add yet another prestigious trophy in Indian Navy’s cabinet.

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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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Young Boys did have their chances, but couldn’t make the best out of it against a strong backline of Kenkre FC. Nitesh Aswani, Swagat Jain, Aditya Gole defended pretty well for the boys in green to deny Young Boys a quite a number of times.

Athang scored his first goal in the 12th minute, which was followed by another goal in the 24th minute to seal the match for Kenkre FC.

Kenkre FC will be playing the defending champions Western Railways in the quarter-finals tomorrow.

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Attacking midfielder Deepak Irmali scored a fine hat-trick to decimate Central Railways (M.D) backline. Hekmat Singh, Ashrafali Makandar and Jinto Jose scored the other three goals to complete a memorable win.

It took Mumbai Customs just three minutes to open their account. Deepak Irmali took advantage of a slight error in Central Railway’s defence and capitalized it after placing his effort in the back of the net.

Seven minutes later, Deepak once again got on the scoresheet with a superb goal, beating a hapless Central Railway goalkeeper Ravi Ghadigaokar to make it 2-0 in favour of Mumbai Customs.

The duo of Deepak Irmali and Rinaldo Fernandes became a potent threat for their counterparts for the majority of the game. The link-up between both the players was close to perfect.

Deepak completed his hat-trick in the 24th minute, taking the match beyond Central Railways reach. Hekmat Singh, Ashrafali Makandar and Jinto Jose scored one each in the later stages of the match to send Mumbai Customs in the next round.

Mumbai Customs will be facing Central Bank of India tomorrow at St. Xavier’s Ground, Parel.

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