Nagpur Sports News: In an interesting encounter, Abhijeet Lions overcame Team Grace 3-2 in Lokmat’s Nagpur Premier League (NPL) Football Tournament at Yashwant Stadium on Saturday.
Team Grace tried their best to bounce back but in vain. Arif Khan, Ahfaq Amir and substitute Michael Okwudili fashioned the victory by scoring one goal each. For Grace, substitute Chibuzar scored brace.
With this victory, Lions have four points in their kitty in two games. On the other hand, now Team Grace who have just one point will have an uphill task to win both the remaining matches to remain in contention.
Abhijeet Lions were leading by 2-1 in the first half. Barring few moments, they dominated most of the first half proceedings.
In the 14th minute Lions drew the first blood when Arif Khan scored from inside the penalty area on the pass of Ahfaq Amir.
Then in the 23rd minute, Lions doubled the score through Ahfaq Amir’s goal. Team Grace goalkeeper Mohammad Faizan Akhter stepped out to the left corner of box to counter Zahid attack. Taking an advantage of it, Ahfaq Amir rushed inside the penalty area and tapped the ball into the box leaving Faizan Akhter stunned.
As far as Grace is concerned, they got early opportunity but Lions foreign recruit Yamagata Yusuke thwarted David’s attempt.
However with just few seconds remaining for the break, substitute Team Grace Chibuzar who came in place of Vincent Bassy reduced the deficit in goal mouth melee on David’s pass. In the second half although both the teams had an equal possession of ball, Abhijeet Lions looked playing under pressure. In fact they were looking to maintain the lead. On the contrary Team Grace played aggressively but unfortunately missed the scoring opportunities.
In the 75th minute, Zahid Ansari made beautiful attempt but the ball rebounded from Grace goalkeeper’s hand. Substitute Michael Okwudil tried to capitalize on rebound but narrowly missed the target. The injury time witnessed two goals. First substitute Michael netted third goal for Lions and then with few seconds remaining for the long whistle, Chibuzar scored second goal for Grace but that was too late.
Yamagata Yusuke (Lions) was declared man-of-the-match. Chibuzar of Team Grace was declared best player.
