Mahindra beat Air India, Bagan down Sporting Goa in Durand Cup

New Delhi, Nov 19 (UNI) Filipe Azevedo scored a fine brace as a depleted Mahindra United beat Air India 2-1 while Mohun Bagan overcame a strong resistance from Sporting Club De Goa before coming out victorious by an identical margin in the Group I quarter-final league ties in the 119th Osian's Durand Cup football tournament here today.

Mahindra took the field without six key players who are training in Dubai in the run up to the Doha Asiad but the Portuguese recruit Filipe made light of it, firing two goals in the 34th and 45th minutes while Paresh Shivalkar pulled one back for Air India in the 65th minute.

Kolkata giants Mohun Bagan found the target twice in the space of two minutes through Dulal Biswas (73rd) and Jose Baretto (75th) while Macpherlin Dudu reduced the margin for the Goan side in the 79th minute.

Playing their first match in the tournament, Mahindra took some time to settle down against their city rivals but the reigning NFL and Federation Cup champions found the groove soon with Ghanaian striker Yusif Yakubu and Filipe working in tandem and threatening the Air India defence several times.

Though Filipe took the honours in his first match in India, Yakubu did all the spadework. First, the Ghanaian collected a long aerial ball and made a fine pass to an unmarked Filipe inside the box who had ample time to position himself and send the ball past the goalkeeper into the net.

In the second, Yakubu got the better of Air India stopper A Martin and sent a curling flighted ball towards the left corner of the goal for Filipe to head in home.

Air India lacked teeth in the upfront throughout the match but were able to pull one back. Following a low cross from the right, Samson Singh made a dummy run for Vijith Shetty and the latter passed the ball for an overlapping Shivalkar to send home with a perfect placement.

At the stroke of final whistle, Air India had a golden chance to level the match but substitute Narendra Meetei, who found himself with only rival goalkeeper to beat from a Martin aerial pass, shot wide in haste.

Last year's runners-up and newly crowned Goa league champions Sporting matched Mohun Bagan in every department of the game throughout the match but paid the price for conceding two goals in quick time in a fast-paced and entertaining match.

Bagan's first goal resulted from an Ndem G Harve spadework.

Collecting a Barreto pass, Ndem broke into the Sporting defence and unleashed a right footer into the goal but was parried by goalkeeper only to find Biswas finding the net with a perfect right-footed placement.

Two minutes later, captain Baretto rose to head in a Lal Kamal Bhowmick free kick to increase the lead for the 16-time champions.

Last year's star player Dudu reduced the margin, scoring a fine goal in the 79th minute after dribbling past the Bagan goalkeeper Sangram Mukherji from a pass by Earnest Jeremiah.

Tomorrow's match: Dempo Sports Club, Goa VS East Bengal, Kolkatta 1300 hrs Army XI VS JCT Phagwara 1500 hrs UNI PDS DH RK1900