Hindustan Aeoronautics Sports Club pipped Madras Engineer Group and Centre 2-1 to top Group B and enter the semifinals of the Puttaiah Memorial football tournament for Super Division teams here on Sunday.
Despite the defeat, the Madras Sappers also made it to the last four by virtue of their second place finish in Group B which became a three-team affair following BEL’s failure to turn up.
In arguably the best match of the tournament between the State’s two top-flight clubs at the Bangalore Football Stadium here, the Aircraftmen missed a couple of chances before opening their account in the 18th minute through veteran Rajendra Prasad who was well fed by Nigerian striker Fredrick Martin from the right wing.
HASC enjoyed a fair share of possession in the first half with Fredrick and Dada Nabeel — son of former coach Dada Peer — coming out with a few attacking moves only to be denied by some clever marking by the Sappers defenders.
The change of ends saw Sappers going on the rampage with Nigil Raj finding the equaliser ten minutes into the second half. The HASC defence which looked solid in the first-half suddenly crumbled and cashing in on a defensive lapse, Nigil tapped the ball into the top right corner of the goal after connecting a measured pass from Santosh. HASC had lady luck smiling on them in the very next minute as MEG’s Shiyad missed a sitter after shooting wide off a rebound despite HASC custodian slipping after the initial collection and being in a helpless position to save the goal.
The Aircraftmen finally found the winning goal through Nabeel in the 76th minute. But the real architect of the goal was winger Sumit Tappa who gave Nabeel a long cross from the left wing.
Sappers attempted desperately for the equaliser, but they ran out of time and ideas. With the battle heating up, referee Elangovan had a busy day flashing six yellow cards.