Federation Cup: Sporting ride on Bose's penalty to enter semis

PANAJI: Sporting Clube de Goa had little or no difficulty putting it across Mumbai FC 1-0 for the second time in four days as the Goan side booked their place in the semifinals of the Federation Cup. With a healthy 1-0 away lead against Mumbai FC from the first leg, Sporting Clube needed only a point from their home clash at the Nehru Stadium in Fatorda on Wednesday. But Subhasish Bose converted a 46th minute penalty to give Sporting full points and a semi-final date against Aizawl FC who upstaged defending champions Bengaluru FC in the quarterfinals.
Sporting will not complain about the narrow margin of victory; two victories in a row should be welcome, though the former Federation Cup finalists could and probably should have scored more goals in the second half when Mumbai opened up more than usual in their search for the equalizer.
Mumbai had to score to have any chance of progressing to the next stage of the Federation Cup, so it surprised nobody, not the least Sporting Clube, when the visitors pushed more men forward. Lajong knock EB out Meanwhile, Lajong FC rode Uilliams Souza Silva's 114thminute strike to knock East Bengal out of the Federation Cup, winning the double-leg quarterfinal 4-3 on aggregate.