Sports
Sahara Club shoot NPC out for a place in semi-finals
Sahara Club of Pokhara shocked four-time champion Nepal Police Club 3-2 in tie-breaker to book a semi-final berth in the 16th Budha Subba Gold Cup here on Tuesday.Pradeep Myangbo
The match was pushed to the penalty shootout after regular and the extra time ended in a 1-1 deadlock. Sagar Gurung turned the course of the match with two brilliant saves for Sahara, who had been put under pressure by NPC through out the match. Custodian Gurung saved the spot kicks of Ganesh Khadka and Rabin Shrestha while Bhola Silwal blasted his shot wide. Only Jumanu Rai and Ajit Majhi were able to convert the goals in the tie-breaker.
Gurung himself scored for Sahara along with Anil Ojha and Suman Lama in the tiebreaker to hand Sahara a rare win over the top-tier club. Only Bhupal Gurung wasted the spot kick for the Sahara outfits.
Earlier, Rai gave NPC the 44th minute lead dribbling the ball past Sahara defenders angled his shot into the post from inside the area. Suman Lama levelled the scores for Sahara in the 51st minute. Piyus Henry fed Bijay Gurung a pass which rebounded off the upright and Lama pounced on the opportunity to slam home the equaliser.
Sahara had wasted a wonderful to score a goal when a shot from Bijay was cleared by Suraj BK from the goal-mouth with NPC goalie Ritesh Thapa already beaten. NPC also saw a couple of chances go begging notably in the 15th minute.