A determined West Zone showed great resilience and tremendous fighting qualities to emerge champions of the football event in the 49th All India Central Revenue Sports Meet.
The West Zone outfit comprising of Mumbai Customs players got the better of favourites East Zone by scoring a second half goal through Praneel Mendon and snatch a close 1-0 victory in a grueling final at the Cooperage ground.
East Zone showed good understanding and better coordination in their build up to attacks. They dominated play from the start, created a series of goal-scoring opportunities to put the West Zone citadel under a lot pressure. But they failed to translate their superiority into goals and West Zone made them pay dearly for those lapses as they capitalized on one chance that came their way to score the crucial winning goal.
Praneel Mendon, the mainstay in the West Zone midfield, from a gilt-edged chance in the 65th minute struck the lone goal, which they managed to hang on to till the final whistle and troop out victorious.
Meanwhile, in semi-final encounters, West Zone comfortably defeated North Zone 3-1 and East Zone prevailed over South Zone 1-0.
Results – Football – Final: West Zone 1 (Praneel Mendon 65th min) bt East Zone 0.
Semi-final: West Zone bt North Zone 3-1, East Zone bt South Zone 1-0.