Stevan Dias nets winner for Mahindra United

Ludhiana, Sep 5 (UNI) Mahindra United, Mumbai registered a hard-fought 1-0 victory against Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) Sports Club, Bangalore in the second match of the 29th Hero Cycles Federation Cup Football Tournament at the floodlit Guru Nanak Stadium here tonight.

Mahindra striker Stevan gave his team the lead in the ninth minute. An eye-pleasing move between Douhue Pierre and Edson Dico Minga culminated into goal, with the former sending a fine cross to Dias to do the rest and steer his team into the quarter-final.

Mahindra got a scare in the 20th minute when Manas Das gave a square backpass to his own goalkeeper Sandip Nandy. HAL striker Sampath Kumar Kuttimani nearly intercepted the backpass but the Mumbai team custodian managed to clear the ball.

Mahindra could have doubled the margin in the 30th minute. Douhue Pierre and Stevan Dias combined well, but Stevan's shot from the right flank was blocked by HAL custodian Gumpe Rime.

Mahindra wasted another opportunity to score in the 43rd minute.

Dias took a flag kick but Harpreet Singh's header was well collected by the agile Gumpe Rime under the bar.

The Mumbai team kept up the pressure and one minute later Dias' centre was collected by keeper Gumpe Rime in his second attempt.

On resumption after the breather, Dias and Mohd Rafi moved up and centred to Krishnan Nair Ajayraj whose shot went wide. Two minutes later HAL counter-attacked with Karthikeyan sending a cross from the right flank to Rajindra Prasad, whose powerful shot was blocked for a corner.

HAL goalkeeper Gumpe made another save in the 64th minute.

Substitute Manjit Singh passed the ball to Douhue Pierre whose powerful shot was saved by alert Bangalore custodian. HAL had another close save in the 65th minute when Douhue Pierre passed the ball to Edson Dico Minga whose shot after beating the keeper, went wide.

Teams: Mahindra United: Sandip Nandy, Sunil Kumar, Harpreet Singh, Naduparmbil Pappachan Pradeep, Manas Das, Stevan Dias, Douhue Pierre, Sushanth Mathew, Krishnan Nair Ajayraj, Mohd Rafi (Manjit Singh), Edson Dico Minga.

HAL: Gumpe Rime, Alesha Shameki, Femi Joseph Adeola, Y Jaikumar, Sumit Thapa, Karthikeyan, J Murlidharan, Rajendra Prasad, Xavier Vijay Kumar, Sampath Kumar Kuttimani, Bimal Minz (Satish Kumar).

UNI