22nd Winners’ Cup : RAO, NCC begin semi-final campaigns with easy victories
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, November 02 2017:
KPSC Kakching failed to capitalise in their home match as RAO, Lairikyengbam Leikai defeated them by 2-1 in the 22nd Winners’ Cup that feature 11 district league champions and is played on a home-and-away basis .
On the other hand, NCC Khonghampat playing their home matches at the SKYC Sekmai Ground not only took full advantage but also prevail over ZFC, Tamenglong by a huge margin of 4-0 .
In the first match, KPSC Kakching made a good start with S Naoton squeezed the ball into the RAO’s net early in the 14th minute of the match.
But apparently that was also going to be their last chance to bank on the home support to get the better of the game against the Lairikyengbam Leikai team .
It took, in fact, only three minutes for RAO to counterattack and get past the KPSC defence as Khangam Horam scored the equaliser in the 17th minute.
For a while, it seemed the match was still open, and when the whistle blew for the first half, the scoreline read 1-1 .
However, in the middle of the second half, the day of frustration for the home team reached its peak when Lungoulen scored the second goal for RAO.
Even with the home crowd on their side, KPSC failed to score an equaliser .
In the second match, NCC Khonghampat completely dominated the match from the beginning to the end.
For the first 30 minute of the game, the Tamenglong team looked unruffled but that ended before long.
Ng Naocha hit the ball hard enough to penetrate through the rival’s goalpost .
The first half ended at 1-0 in favour of the home team and soon the barrage of the goals completely destroyed the chance for ZFC to come back to the game.
To make a timeline, N Suresh scored the second goal in the 60th min, and then Ng Naocha added two more in the 70th and 81st minutes to take the score to 4-0 .
On Nov 5, at the Khuman Lampak Turf Ground which is used by the ZFC as their home ground, NCC Khonghampat will come back at 8am while RAO, Lairikyengbam Leikai, with the venue also as their home ground, will clash with KPSC Kakching at 1pm.