GUWAHATI, Sept 11 � The Ghanaian recruits of Abahoni Limited of Dhaka paid dividends as the Bangladeshi outfit beat a fighting ASEB Sports Club to book a berth in the last four in the 59th Bharat Ratna Gopinath Bordoloi Trophy Football Tournament being played at the Nehru Stadium here.
In a quarterfinal league match today, the Dhaka club defeated the defending champions 2-1 to set up a semifinal clash with Lajong FC of Shillong. In the other semifinal, Assam Regimental Centre of Shillong will take on Three Star Club of Nepal.
ASEB lads could hardly gain a foothold in the game when the Dhaka strikers led by their Ghanaian recruit Ntim Twum Frank made some lightning raids with positive results. Abahoni took an early lead of 2-0 when the game was barely five minutes old.
First it was Frank who smartly dodged past two ASEB defenders to score home from the right corner of the box in the third minute. Two minutes later, an opportunist Pranotosh Kumar Das tapped the ball into the net off a corner.
From that initial hiccup, it took ASEB boys almost 20 minutes to combine themselves and initiate some moves. But they had to pay the price of making short passes on soggy field, often missing to find the right man, and none of their raids was fruitful.
If the first half belonged to the Dhaka team, the local boys made amends in the second half, switching into an attacking mode. And within fifteen minutes they earned a couple of flag kicks. But they were unable to make use of the opportunity to find the goal. ASEB�s Birendra Narzary toiled hard on the left flank to assume the role of a playmaker, constantly feeding the ball into the box, but poor anticipation on the part of the forward-line failed to produce any result.
ASEB finally found the goal when Sanjoy Boro swarved the ball off a free kick from just outside the box into the back of the net. It was the 62nd minute of the game and there were ample time for the local boys to bring back the game in their favour, but the Dhaka boys did their duty well to thwart every raid. ASEB had the golden chance of an equaliser in the 71st minute when Jilendra Brahma miffed an easy chance with only the Dhaka custodian to beat.
In between, Abahoni also made some good moves after Choumrin Rakhime came in as a substitute in the 75th minute bolstering the attack. Abahoni captain Awudu Ibrahim, another recruit from Ghana, came close to scoring in the 67th minute but ASEB custodian Daoga Brahma made a smart save. Ibrahim was the livewire of the Dhaka team in the midfield.
