DHARAN, Feb 9: A-Division club Ruslan Three Star Club (TSC) is set for summit clash with Nepal Police Club (NPC) on Saturday in the ongoing 20th Budha Subba Red Bull Gold Cup football tournament, just five days after getting beaten by the departmental team in the Aaha Rara Gold Cup, with a 1-0 victory over Kolkata’s Durgapur Steel Football Club on Thursday.
At the Dharan Stadium, national players-studded TSC’s Bishnu Gurung scored the decider in the injury time after he came in for Ananta Tamang in the 81st minute.
NPC had beaten CMG Sankata Club in the first last-four match played on Wednesday.
Police thrashes Three Star to reach final
Despite winning the match, TSC wasted more than two dozen chances throughout the match and failed to kill the game before scoring the decider. Bishwas Shrestha’s header from a Budhha Chemjong’s cross in the 11th minute was missed, while Tamang’s header from a Sunil Bal’s cross was beautifully saved by Durgapur goalkeeper Bishal Koit.
Likewise, Nirajan Khadka missed a glorious chance to score in the 39th minute as he failed to control the ball. TSC also created a lot of chances in the second half. Chemjong was unable to score two minutes after the restart, while Shrestha was unable to make most of the chance resulting from Ajayi Martin’s passes. Also, Shrestha’s shot went over the bar in the 52nd minute, while Chemjong’s shot was cleared by the defender after Martin put him clean through in the 54th minute and Bal’s shot sailed over the bar.
On the other hand, TSC missed even more chances in the second half as Bijay Dhimal’s shot in the 56th minute was punched by Koit, while Shrestha’s strong shot was cleared by Durgapur’s Samrat Nandi. They also missed many opportunities to score in the latter part of the match, including a miss by Khadka who failed to head the ball goalwards in the 82nd minute.
The guest team also had many chances to score, albeit less than TSC, but failed to score.
Bishwajit Mor’s shot sailed over the bar resulting from a Manish Thapa cross in the second minute of the match, while Segun could not shoot on target in the 23rd minute. Also, Segun’s powerful shot was punched away by TSC goalkeeper Alan Neupane in the 26th minute, while Thapa’s strong free-kick was again punched by Neupane in the 59th minute. Thapa’s shot in the 71st minute was brilliantly saved by Neupane in the 71st minute.
TSC goalkeeper Neupane was named the man-of-the-match and was rewarded with Rs 10,000.
TSC head coach Megh Raj KC expressed his dissatisfaction saying it was the worst performance of the season despite winning the match.
“It wasn’t our day. I think we played 12-15 matches this season, and this was the worst performance,’’ We played under pressure failing to score on time. The players hurried to score and played awfully.
Durgapur head coach Pintu Sarkar said that the opponent played very well and the attackers could not score as the midfield did not work. “Our midfield looked very poor today. The players failed to feed the ball forward and the attackers were under immense pressure,’’ Sarkar said.
