Ten Men SSGC hold NBP and book their place in the semi final

Ten Men SSGC hold NBP and book their place in the semi final

 

By Faizan Liaquat

First half goal from Muhammad Ali was enough for SSGC to win against NBP in 4th Quarter Final of the tournament.

SSGC who is under a new coaching staff qualifies for the semifinal of 1st NBP President Cup on Tuesday when they won against Nasir Ismail’s NBP. The weather was ideal for football and around 1100-1200 people were in stadium to supports their favorite teams. The match started as both teams looked nervous in first 25-30 minutes. It was a very physical match as mid fielder Waseem Qadir from NBP and Abdus Salam of SSGC both played rash football in first half. Both received number of warnings from the referee in the beginning of the game but they both played the same way even after the warnings.

 

The first goal scoring chance was created by SSGC in the first half when Saadullah tried his luck against NBP’s goal keeper after receiving the ball from Bilalwal. NBP who was playing with many youngster as most of their regular first team players were injured, they looked off colored once again. Their right back Israr Ahmed looked average once again today as SSGC made so many chance from that position and almost converted 2-3 into goal scoring opportunity. The only goal of the match was scored in additional minutes of first half when Muhammad Ali of SSGC calmly dispatching it past Muhammad Umer goal keeper of NBP after receiving the ball from right hand side.
The 2nd half of this match was controversial as Farooq Shah who was also a Captain of NBP scored a goal on an overhead kick but the lineman ruled that an offside, the coach of NBP Nasir Ismail criticized the decision after the game

“That was not an offside, it was a clear goal. NBP arranged this tournament which I believe is a huge success but the only negative thing of this tournament is the standard match officials. They made so many mistake during the competition and even after complaining the organizing committee didn’t changed them” told footballpakistan.com when asked about the referee standard in this tournament.

The only player who looked promising today from NBP was their number 28 Muhammad Zeeshan, he was the constant danger for the defense of SSGC. But young attacker was wasteful when he got into shooting positions but at least he showed a bit of life. He was the one NBP attacker who tried to make things happen even if his final decision was often the wrong one.

NBP created another chance of the game in 65th minute when their CF missed an open header after receiving a decent cross from Sanaullah. Referee made 2nd controversial decision of the game when he showed a straight red to SSGC’s Abdus Salam as he made a both footed tackle on Zeeshan.  Right after this NBP started attacking more as they have a man advantage over SSGC. NBP players continued to press forward in search of a way back into the game, but they were unable to beat Goal keeper Ahsanullah in the SSGC goal. Misbah ul hasan of NBP almost fired an equalizer deep into stoppage-time, but he saw his effort goes wide. The match ended with 1-0 in favor of SSGC.

NBP dominated the ball in last 20 minutes of the game but lacked the requisite calmness to turn opportunities into goals.

 

On the other hand forward of SSGC Saadullah missed many opportunities of scoring more goals but his finishing was not up to the mark.

 

Saadullah must find a way to reignite the spark that made the Pishin man untouchable a few years ago. He is a confident player. He needs games and he needs goals – if he can get a few of those under his belt he will be more valuable.

 

Nasir Ismail (Coach NBP) after the match
“I felt that we deserved more from this game in which we controlled possession and created a greater number of chances than SSGC” 

 

 

 

Tariq Lutfi (Coach SSGC)
“I am not completely happy with the way we played and with the way we won, this is my first assignment with SSGC and I required some time. Yes, I am happy that we qualified for the semifinal but we should’ve won this earlier in the first half where we missed 1-2 easy chances.”

SSGC WILL FACE WAPDA IN THE 2ND SEMI FINAL OF THE TOURNAMENT ON FRIDAY 27th January 2017