Kolkata, September 02: Air India held Senegal’s A.S. Douanes goalless while Churchill Brothers and Mohammedan Sporting finished 1-1 in group league clashes of the 114th IFA Shield football tournament Wednesday.
The Goan outfit Churchill Brothers surged ahead in the 27th minute through a Reishangvi Vashum strike, but Dipendu Biswas cancelled the lead at the stroke of the half hour at Barasat stadium, where the rivals dished out a pedestrian variety of the game.
A long ball from Naoba Singh was well followed up by Vashum, who received with his left foot and then let loose a volley off a half turn to make the scoreline 1-0 in the group B tie.
But the lead was offset within three minutes as a Peter Odafe centre was headed home by Dipendu.
After two games, sporting are now on four points, while Churchill have one. Lajong, the third team in the group, are yet to open their account.
The only semi-final berth from the group will now be decided Friday, when Churchill need to defeat Lajong and finish with a better goal difference than Sporting. Pune F.C. will play for pride.
Similar is the situation in group D, where Air India, A. S, Douanes and Pune F. C. are on four, one and zero point respectively.
Douanes who failed to impress Wednesday, are in a must-win situation in their last group game opposite Pune F.C. A two-goal margin will see the Senegalese through to the last four, while Pune are already out of reckoning.
—IANS