An unimpressive Sporting Clube de Goa huffed and puffed to a 1-0 victory over a fighting Army XI to book a place in the quarter-finals of the 29th Federation Cup in Ludhiana on Wednesday.
Kenyan Bonface Ambani's sixth minute strike did propel the side to the last eight stage at the Guru Nanak Stadium but the Goan outfit looked far from menacing in the match.
Sporting started brightly and were on the attack from the start. A free-kick from Sporting's Godwin Franco in the third minute found Nicholas Muyoti but the Kenyan's header came off the upright.
But Sporting did not have to wait long to go ahead.
Ambani received a pass from Joseph Pereira on the right flank, allowing him to have a clear run on goal past an out-of-position K P Kamui and he made no mistake in finding the net past Army custodian Robikanta Singh.
But after the initial flourish which resulted in the goal, it was the valiant Army soldiers who went on the attack. They recovered soon after to ask some tough questions off the Sporting defence.
They pinned the Sporting team in their own half and the Goan team was forced to defend their citadel in large numbers and go forward on the break.
The second half too was dominated by the soldiers but they failed to create many clear-cut chances as they lacked teeth in the final third.
When they committed too many players to attack and left gaps in their defence, the Sporting midfield and forwardline tried to take advantage but Robikanta stood tall to deny them.
He made a wonderful save off a powerful drive from Harmanjot Khabra and also denied Rajesh Meetei who showed good skill to create space for him just outside the box.
Robikanta also came all the way out of his box when Ambani was charging unchallenged towards goal. He pulled the Kenyan wide and even though Ambani got past the custodian, G S Sandhu made the goal line save.
However, despite their best efforts, N Gurneilal, Thirunavakarasu, M G Ramachandran and Irudaya Raj could not find the net resulting in Army's elimination from the Federation Cup.
Sporting had not scored in the Goan league in three matches and Nigerian coach Clifford Chukwuma was relieved with the win.
"I am happy with the victory but there is lot of work to be done. The team is playing like 11 individuals right now," he said.
"We have lost some key players, including Dudu Omagbeni [who has gone to play in Poland] and the five new players we have got will take some time to jell," he added.
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