Second-half goals from Foffana and Lama help Jawalakhel salvage a point. Jawalakhel Youth's Fode Foffana (left) in action with Himalayan Sherpa's Bhison Gurung during their Martyrs Memorial 'A' Division League match at the ANFA Complex in Satdobato, Lalitpur on Wednesday. Hemanta Shrestha
A strong second-half display saw Jawalakhel Youth Club rally from a 3-1 down to salvage a point against Himalayan Sherpa in their Martyrs Memorial 'A' Division League match at the ANFA Complex in Satdobato on Wednesday. Both teams were reduced to 10 men in the tense match.
Fode Foffana and Rup Bahadur Lama helped Jawalakhel Youth salvage a point against Himalayan Sherpa.
Sherpa took an early lead five minutes into the match with a spectacular effort from Stephane Samir Deiubeni through the right-wing. The Cameroonian defender was yet again in action 22 minutes later, as he provided an assist for Bijay Shrestha, who exhibited brilliant ball control before scoring past Jawalakhel custodian Arun Blon.
Jawalakhel lost a man in the 35th minute when Blon was shown a straight red for handling the ball outside the area. But Jawalakhel continued to press hard and pulled a goal back in the first-half injury time through substitute Kuber Bista. The forward was introduced in place of Suraj Ghimire in the 34th minute. But a minute later, Samir found the net for the second time to reinstate Sherpa's two-goal advantage to go into the break with a 3-1 lead.
Despite playing with a man short, Jawalakhel were industrious in the middle as Fode Foffana headed home in the hour to reduce the deficit 3-2.
In the 68th minute, Himalayan Sherpa themselves had Niraj Basnet sent off after collecting his second yellow card of the match. Rup Bahadur Lama scored from the resulting freekick to level the scores at 3-3.
Jawalakhel coach Naresh Thapa said that the draw with Sherpa secured a place inside top six. "The match was nothing like we expected it to be. We were under pressure after conceding early goals," he said.
Thapa's counterpart Sanjib Budhathoki attributed Sherpa's failure to poor marking. "I think the players were complacent today as we had already avoided relegation," Budhathoki said.
Jawalakhel are fifth in the standings with 19 points while Sherpa are 11th with 11 points after the 12th round of the domestic top-flight. Tribhuvan Army lead the standings with 29 points, a point above second-placed Machhindra. The top two sides face off in what is seen as the title decider on Saturday.
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