Kenneth Fernandes played a stellar role by scoring a brace of goals in leading D’Souza Football Academy to a tight 3-2 win against FC Mumbaikars in a Third Division semi-final match of the Rustomjee-MDFA League 2019-2020 and played at the Cooperage ground, Colaba on Wednesday.
The opportunistic striker Fernandes struck in the sixth minute and again in the 43rd minute while Aaron Rebello scored the third in the 47th minute to secure D’Souza Football Academy’s victory and a passage to the final. FC Mumbaikars scored once in each half through Saurabh Gaud and Dhaval Bamniya.
Earlier, Jeevies FC got the better of Vipul Gorai FC by a 4-3 margin via the tie-breaker in another semi-final match, which was locked 1-1 at the end of 50-minute regulation time.
Vipul Gorai’s striker Saurabh Gagre hit the target in the 13th minute to give his team the lead which they managed to hold till the last minute. But, Jeevies FC earned a penalty at the death and Shubham Bhobskar successfully converted to provide his team with a lifeline. In the tie-breaker, Bhobskar, Vijay Chavan and Omkar Sapaliga scored from the penalty spot for Jeevies while only Gagre and Gitesh Desai managed to convert for Vipul Gorai.
Results Third div (semi-final): Jeevies FC 4 (Shubham Bhobskar 2, Vijay Chavan, Omkar Sapaliga) beat Vipul Gorai 3 (Saurabh Gagre 2, Gitesh Desai) via the tie-breaker. Full time: 1-1.
D’Souza Football Academy 3 (Kenneth Fernandes 2, Aaron Rebello) beat FC Mumbaikars 2 (Saurabh Gaud, Dhaval Bamniya).