New signings Anwar Ali (40’, 86’) and Jason Cummings (59’) scored for the Mariners while Afeez Oladipo (78’) found the back of the net for Machhindra FC.
Goals by Muhammed Nemil, Carlos Martinez and Devendra Murgaokar helped the Men in Orange wrap up their Durand Cup group stage campaign with a win on Wednesday.
The winners will go on to face either Abahani Limited Dhaka of Bangladesh or Club Eagles of the Maldives in the AFC Cup South Zone playoff clash scheduled for August 22. The Mariners will seal their place in the AFC Cup for a third straight season if they win their playoff clash.
Vivek Kumar put the Air Men ahead in the first half after a defensive error, only for Salam Johnson Singh to draw level in the second half. This was BFC’s first game in Group C, while the IAFFT will have one more to go, after having lost the first to Gokulam Kerala, who currently top the gro
Punjab FC (PFC) will look to keep their knockout chances alive when they face East Bengal in their last Group A fixture of the 132nd Durand Cup that will be played here at the Kishore Bharathi Krirangan.
The opening goal was scored in the 22nd minute after Connor Shields set up winger Farukh Choudhary with a precise pass as the Indian forward scored his first goal for the club. Rahim Ali then extended the lead with his goal from the penalty spot in the 39th minute before Rafael Crivellaro st
Coach Biniano Fernandes will lead a young Bengaluru FC side in the Durand Cup and the pressure will straight away be on the youngsters as they will have to compete with Gokulam Kerala who are sitting pretty on the top of the group with two wins in two matches.
After a low-key start to the match, Kerala Blasters started dominating ball possession. But to everybody’s surprise, Bouba Aminou fired a goal for Gokulam from a Nili Perdomo corner to put his side ahead in the derby.
Chennaiyin FC will be aiming to seal their quarter-final spot in the Durand Cup 2023 when they take on Tribhuwan Army in a Group E clash at the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium on Monday.
The Kerala derby is scheduled to start at 2.30 pm. Following that in Kokrajhar’s SAI Stadium, with a scheduled 4.45 pm IST kick-off, Downtown Heroes of Kashmir get down to play their first-ever Durand Cup game against Shillong Lajong in Group D.