September 24, 2007	Monday	Ramazan 11, 1428

LAHORE, Sept 23: Regar-TadAZ of Tajikistan cruised into the semi-final of the 3rd AFC President’s Football Cup after beating Pakistan Army 2-1 in a vital Group ‘A’ match at the Punjab Stadium on Saturday night.

While it was Regar-Tadaz’s second consecutive victory of the competition after humiliating Transport United of Bhutan 13-0 in the opener, Army failed to win in any of the matches after drawing 3-3 against Ratnam Sports of Sri Lanka in the opening match.

In another match played on Saturday evening, Ratnam Sports, the main obstacle in Army’s path to the last four, strengthened their position by outclassing Transport United, Bhutan 6-1.

The second semi-finalists from Group ‘A’ will be decided on Monday, when Army meet Transport United while Ratnam Sports clash with Regar-TadAZ.

All goals between Regar-TadAZ and Army were scored in the last 25 minutes of the match. Both teams played a defensive game in the beginning.

The winners launched their first offensive in the 27th minute but skipper Khurshed Makhmudov and Abbos Abdullayev were unable to beat keeper Jaffar Khan.

A minute later, Regar’s defender Maruf Rustamov again tested Army’s keeper but his kick sailed over the bar.

Army missed out an open sitter in the 40th minute when midfielder Michael Masih failed to cash in on a cross from striker Adnan Bari.

Adnan failed in another attempt in the 58th minute.

The winners eventually succeeded in scoring in the 60th minute when Abbos Abdullayey scored off a rebound.

Three minutes later Regar were 2-0 up when Mansurdzhon Hakimov took the ball from Maruf Rustamov and with a 30-metre drive from the left, put the ball into the net, leaving Jaffar Khan guessing.

The soldiers scored their solitary goal in the 75th minute through Umar Daraz off a pass from Majid Khan.

In the other match, Ediri Bandanage Channa stole the show for Ratnam Sports with five goals to his credit.

The winners from Sri Lanka, hoping to pressurise Pakistan Army on goal-counts to join Regar TadAZ in the semis, led the first half 2-1.

Both goals were scored in the first 17 minutes. Channa created the opener in the 13th minute with a fine pass to his skipper Rawme, who did well to slam the ball past Transport’s keeper Pushpalal Sharma.

Four minutes later, Channa struck the second to make it 2-0.

Striker Gyeltshen, reduced the margin (2-1) in the 42nd minute for Bhutan when he lobbed the ball over keeper Dammika Orji.

Ratnam completely dominated the second half paving the way for Channa, to strike four goals in a row in the last 20 minutes. He made it 3-1 in the 70th minute. Three minutes later, he struck his third to make it 4-1, making it the first ever hat-trick by a South Asian player in the AFC President’s Cup history.

Channa, again struck in the 83rd minute, ably supported by his captain Rawme and defender Sharma while his sixth, in the final minute of the game, was a result of a dreadful blunder by Transport’s defender Ugyen Dorji who lost the ball to enable Channa to slam it into the net.