MSC storm into semis

Falling giants Mohammedan SC stormed into the semifinals of the Federation Cup with an emphatic 4-1 win over Chittagong Abahani in their quarterfinal clash at the Shaheed Dhirendranath Datta Stadium in Cumilla yesterday.

Souleymane Diabate, captain of the Black and Whites, struck twice after Nigerian Emanuel Sunday and Uzbek Muzaffarjon Muzaffarov netted one apiece in the scorching heat to set  a semifinal clash against Bashundhara Kings.

Nigerian Candy Augustine netted the consolation strike from the spot for former Fed Cup runners-up Ctg Abahani, who made it to the semis of the competition once in the last four editions.

Shrugging off their disappointing 1-1 draw against Bangladesh Police FC in the previous encounter in the Bangladesh Premier League, 10-time Fed Cup champions Mohammedan bounced back strongly against Chittagong Abahani to take the lead in 20th minute through a nice strike from Emanuel inside the box, capitalising on a superb cut-back from Emon Shahriar.

The motijheel-based outfit kept creating chances before Muzaffarov doubled the margin from a corner kick which took a slight deflection off  Ctg Abahani defender Imran Hossain Rimon before finding it's way back into the net.

After resumption, Mohammedan widened the margin three minutes into the second half with a nice build-up through the wings. Spaniard Daniel Ricardo whipped a cross from the left flank and right-back Mehedi Hasan squared it to unmarked Diabate, who did not make a mistake to tap it into the near post. He struck from outside the box in the 70th minute to kill the match.