Mumbai and Pune, both comfortably won their respective semi-final matches to set a title clash in the Maharashtra Inter District Football Championship for Sub-Junior Boys. In the first semi-final fancied Mumbai riding on Ridge D’Mello’s fine hat-trick eased past Nagpur by a comfortable 3-0 at the Sports Complex Ground in Nashik, on Tuesday.
Action during Mumbai v/s Nagpur match.
In the second semi-final, Pune crushed hosts Nashik 7-0 to enter the final which is scheduled to be played on Wednesday.
Mumbai made a strong start against Nagpur and were rewarded in the 10th minute, when Ridge D’Mello latched on to a lofted pass from midfield to lob the ball over the Nagpur goalkeeper and into the goal to hand Mumbai an early lead.
Nagpur passed up a great opportunity to level the scores when they missed a penalty midway through the second half. Mumbai eventually punished Nagpur for their miss from the spot as Ridge D’Mello beat the offside trap to round the goalkeeper and brilliantly squeeze a shot from a tight angle into the netting in the 33rd minute. Mumbai’s task became easier when Nagpur’s Furqan Raza received his marching orders after a second bookable offence.
Mumbai went into the break with a firm grip on the game and the grip tightened three minutes into the second half when the rampant Ridge D’Mello popped up once again to complete a brilliant hat-trick.
In the second semi-final, Pune ended hosts Nashik’s dream run in the competition handing them a 7-0 drubbing. Pranav Kale scored four goals helping his team reach the showpiece Final.
Action during Pune v/s Nashik match
Rachit Singh opened the scoring for Pune in the 5th minute before two quick-fire goals from Pranav Kale and Chaitanya Advani just before the twenty minute mark put Pune firmly in charge with a 3-0 lead which they held into the interval.
Nashik who came from 2-0 down in the Quarter Final weren’t allowed to repeat their heroics as Pune killed the game with a fourth goal in the 45th minute from Pranav Kale. It got better for Pune fifteen minutes later whenChitanyaAdvani bagged his second of the game to put Pune 5-0 up.
Later it was the Pranav Kale show as the striker scored two more goals in the 62nd and 74th minute to make it a final score of 7-0 in Pune’s favour.
The Final between Mumbai and Pune will kick off at the Sports Complex Ground in Nashik at 9 am on Wednesday.