Sporting, Churchill, Mahindra in semis reckoning

Kolkata, Dec 8 (IANS) Mohammedan Sporting remained in the fray for a semi-final berth with a 2-1 win over Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) while Mahindra United and Churchill Brothers finished with a 2-2 draw in crucial group B league matches of the 30th Federation Cup Monday.

Okolie Odafa and Vineesh Jalan found the target for Churchill, while Sushil Singh and Steven Dias struck for Mahindra United in a group B outing at the Vidaysagar stadium.

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In the day's second game at the same venue, Tejoka and Jyothi Kumar netted for Sporting, while Dada Nabi was the sole scorer for HAL.

Mahindra and Churchill are now with four points, while Sporting trail them by a point. However, the city giants now have a battle on their hands, as they have to garner full three points against Churchill in their concluding group tie Wednesday.

Having lost both their matches so far, HAL are out of the tournament.

After a barren first half, the Mizo midfielder Tejoka put his side ahead with a firm grounder following a square pass by Francis Nova in the 53rd minute.

The Bangalore outfit took only nine minutes to restore parity as Gautam Debnath's floater from the left was nodded home by Dada Nabi.

Jyothi Kumar broke the stalemate in the dying minutes with a farm header following a Rajib Ghosh lob.