Forward Anil Gurung fired the three-time winners into an early ninth minute lead and Sujal Shrestha’s brilliant finish sealed MMC win seven minutes after the restart. MMC will now square off against five time champions Nepal Police Club (NPC) for a place in the final on Thursday.

Gurung put MMC ahead heading home Sujal Shrestha’s curling cross from close range. Sujal then doubled the tally when he coolly slotted in a Deepak Rai cross beyond the reach of Sankata goalkeeper Pierre Herve. “It was really important that we took an early lead. That allowed us to control the remainder of the match,” said MMC’s coach Hari Om Shrestha.

Earlier, Sankata squandered an opportunity to level the scores on the half hour mark when an unmarked Bijay Dhimal completely miss-timed his header a Santosh Sahukhala cross from close range in the 27th minute. Sankata custodian Herve kept MMC at bay in the second-half as he did brilliantly to hold on to Gurung’s drilled effort on the goal in the 67th minute. Herve was again called into action when he parried away Rai’s effort away from goal six minutes later.

“They made it difficult creating scoring chances throughout the game. But we managed to score early which allowed us to control ball possession,” said MMC coach Shrestha. Shrestha also revealed his intention to fielding a strong team in their semi-final clash against NPC.

“It is a vital game for us and we will need to put up our best effort if we are to beat them,” added Shrestha. Sankata coach Raju Kaji Shakya also admitted conceding early goal made the difference. “It is difficult to bounce back against a team like MMC. Some of our tactical decisions did not work today and to add to that, we also struggled to create chances,” said Shakya.