POKHARA, Jan 24: Tribhuvan Army Club has reached to the semifinals of the ongoing Aaha-Rara Gold Cup Football Tournament registering 2-0 victory over Jhapa-XI on Monday. Second half goals from strikers Nawayug Shrestha and Bharat Khawas sent the departmental side into the last four.
The quarterfinal match played at Pokhara stadium was ended goalless in the first half but Nawayug gave lead to Army within first minute of the second half. Man-of-the-match Nawayug beat the Jhapa-XI's goalkeeper Kishor Giri and sent the ball into the open net to produce the first goal of the match. Army's skipper Bharat Khawas extended the lead to 2-0 in the 70th minute scoring beautiful goal in the solo effort. Now Army will take on the host Sahara Club in the semifinal clash.
Army scores three goals in second half to reach Aaha Rara semis
Earlier in the match, both sides created many goal scoring chances but due to poor conversion from the players prevented to add more goals. Army was denied to take the lead in the 13th minute when Santosh Tamang's free kick hit the woodwork. Army again was denied to produce goal in the first half as Bharat's powerful shot from the penalty box was saved by Jhapa-XI's goalie Kishor in the 35th minute.
Jhapa-XI also missed some golden opportunities to score a goal against the departmental team most notably when defender Rajin Dhimal's close range effort was denied by Army goalkeeper Bikesh Kuthu in the 17th minute. Yogesh Gurung in the 58th minute wasted another scoring chance as he couldn't direct the ball into the opponent's post in one versus one situation. Seven minutes before end of the normal time, Jhapa-XI got another opportunity to score but it was denied as Ranjit Shrestha's free kick was saved by Army's goalkeeper Bikesh.
In the past, Army reached the final of the Aaha-Rara for the three occasions but hasn't clinched the trophy yet. Similarly it is the fourth participation of the Jhapa-XI in the tournament. The Jhapa-based club had reached to the semifinal in the last edition of the tournament before crashing out by Manang Marsyangdi 4-0.
After the match, Army's head coach Nabin Neupane said that his team had to work hard in the second half to produce the victory due to poor conversion in the first half. "Our plan was to score in the first half but failing to utilize multiple chances in the first half prevented us from a lead. We couldn't keep Jhapa under pressure but scoring in the first minute of the second half proved to be a turning point," said Neupane.
Jhapa-XI's head coach Sanjay Rai said that playing several miss-passes didn't help his team. "Though we started the match with attacking moves, we couldn't score any goal and failed to create any pressure against Army. We couldn't play as per our plans," said Rai.
On Tuesday's clash in the tournament, Sankata Club will take on Farashganj Football Club of Bangladesh.
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