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Nagpur News: In a close fought contest late on Tuesday evening at Yashwant Stadium in the fourth season of Lokmat’s NPL, a 90th minute strike by Nigeria’s Uche Onogugbo helped Ashvamedh Royals to secure a 1-1 draw against Yamsanwar Champions.
Earlier, Ivory Coast’s Fabrice opened the scoring for Yamsanwar Champions with his third goal of the tournament. The scoreline doesn’t do justice to the number of chances created in the game. It was a competition between the two best passing sides of the League so far as various chances were created by both the teams in the first half. The action began as early as the third minute with Yamsanwar defender Kevin Goran making a clearance off the goal-line as the Royals came forward on a counter-attacking move.Both sides created several other chances with shots flying past the goalpost and the cross bar on many occasions. But due credit has to be given to the defending from both sides which was excellent and prevented any goal in the first 45 minutes of the match.
With the second half in progress, Fabrice opened the scoring in the 51st minute chipping the ball over the keeper as he ran out to make the save. The goal was assisted by a long ball from Mohd. Rasheed. Both sides then began to tire as the half progressed and the Yasmsanwar Champions were punished for their wastefulness and complacency towards the dying moments as Uche scored in the 90th minute from a rebound that bounced back from goalkeeper Amit Chaurasia’s save with a number of bodies fighting for the ball inside the box.
The man-of-the-match award was shared between defenders Kevin Goran and Sebin Varghese of Yamsanwar Champions and Ashvamedh Royals respectively.
