Custodian Lihaz Koya’s heroics lifted Mumbai Customs into the semi-finals. Showing plenty of confidence, Koya made two brilliant saves in succession in the crucial sudden death penalty shootout tie-breaker to secure tight 9-8 win against Indian Navy in a quarter-final round match of the MDFA (Mumbai District Football Association) Nadkarni Cup (knock out) Football Tournament, organised and sponsored by RCF and played at the RCF ground, Chembur on Thursday.
Lihaz Koya
The match finished in a 1-1 draw with G. Priyo Kumar Sharma giving Navy a first half lead before Rinaldo scored the equaliser in the second session. The first five sets of kicks in the tie-break failed to break the deadlock as both teams successfully converted from the ‘spot’ taking the tie to the sudden death. In the sudden death too, the scores went level pegging till 8-all before Customs Akshay Satpote missed the next attempt as he shot wide. But Customs goalkeeper Koya came to the rescue of the team when he saved the next two attempts from the Navy players. Then Deepak Irmali made sure of scoring the eighth try for Customs to clinch the win in their favour.
Results (quarter-final): Mumbai Customs 9 (Rinaldo Fernandes 59th, Joshua Vessaokar, Hekmat Singh, Vaibhav Karpe, Ashrafali Makandar, Siddesh S, Praneel Mendon, Lihaz Koya, Deepak Irmali) beat Indian Navy 8 (G. Priyo Kumar Sharma 28th, Sunil K. Naik, Raman Rai, Riyad B., Shahir S., Sumesh P.S., Dalraj Singh, Biplab Dhar).