THE BLOG BY CPD FOOTBALL | The World of Indian football and beyond by Chris Punnakkattu Daniel

Ozone FC Bengaluru march into 2017 Nike Premier Cup Final

Ozone FC Bengaluru march into 2017 Nike Premier Cup Final (Photo courtesy: I-League Media)

Ozone FC continued their unbeaten run in the Nike Premier Cup 2017 (AIFF U-16 Youth League – Final Round), after they breezed past Shillong Lajong FC in the first semi-final of the day.

After an even opening minutes, Ozone opened the scoring in the 20th minute through a counter attack on the left, Ozone’s Ignatius John cross resulted in a goalmouth melee inside the box but after the Lajong keeper Akash Thapa managed to save the initial danger the ball once again fell back to the now unmarked Ignatius, who made no mistake in dispatching it to the net with the Goal Keeper off his position.

Eight minutes later, another cross from the right saw Lajong defender handling the ball inside the box conceding a silly penalty, Ozone’s Ajay converted the spot-kick by dispatching the ball to the top-left corner as the keeper judged the wrong way.

Soon Shillong Lajong pulled one back from an attack of their own from the right, Lajong winger ran past couple of defenders before taking a shot from the box which was deflected away by the Ozone keeper Niraj Kumar but only as far as another Lajong forward Parvaj who fired it into the goal to make it 1-2. Both the teams entered the break without troubling the score any further.

The second half started with Lajong in more attacking mode looking for an equaliser However it was Ozone that found the next. In the 75th minute, Ignatius John made it 3-1 after Manvir Singh’s initial shot from the edge of the box was saved by Akash Thapa.

Nearing the end of the game, another attacking move from Ozone saw Lajong keeper Akash come off his line outside of his box to stop the ball in a one-on-one situation but his decision to jump against onrushing Ozone forward was deemed dangerous as Referee gave him his marching orders. Ozone converted the free-kick thanks to Manvir Singh’s amazing shot as making it 4-1 with just minutes to full time.

The match ended without any further change as Ten-man Shillong Lajong bowed out of Nike Premier Cup 2017.

(Report & Photo courtesy: I-League Media)