Churchill Brothers enter Durand final

New Delhi, Sep 5 (UNI) Defending champions Churchill Brothers edged out Sporting Clube De Goa 3-0 via penalty shoot-out to book their berth in the final of the 121st Osian's Durand Cup here today.

Churchill started out on an agressive note and dominated proceedings from the start, pushing their rivals on to the backfoot.

But their striker Odafa Onyeka Okolie was tightly marked by N Singh in the Sporting defence which rendered all attempts toothless. It was a hard, physically tough encounter with both teams committing too many fouls.

The first scoring chance fell to Okolie whose powerful free-kick rattled the bar from 35 yards. Churchill missed anoter great chance in the very next minute when a through pass from Reisangmi Vashum found Khemtang Paite who shot over the bar from close range.

Okolie finally managed to beat his marker in the 30th minute and dribbled into the box. But he blasted his attempt over the bar with just the goalkeeper to beat.

Sporting were struggling to create clear cut chances. They lacked co-ordination upfront and were clearly suffering from a lack of an effective centre forward. Their best attemt at goal in the opening sesion fell to Micky Fernandes whose beautiful swerving free-kick from 25 yards missed the target by inches.

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