Defeating Machindra in Army Semi-Finals

In the third quarter-final held at the Domalal Rajvanshi Stadium in Birtamod, Army overturned the situation and won by 1 goal. Army, who was behind by one goal in the first half, scored both goals in the second half to win. Usha Navayug Shrestha scored in the 60th minute and Basant Zimba scored in the 80th minute to take the team to the semi-finals of the Jhapa Gold Cup for the sixth consecutive time.

Machindra's defender could not clear the ball and Navayug, who was near the box, stole the net in the 60th minute. In the 80th minute, Basant managed to score in a counter attack. Machindra took the lead in the 11th minute. However, Machindra, who played Jhapa Gold Cup for the first time, returned home from the first match as he could not maintain the lead for the stipulated time.

Foreign player Stephen Binong scored for Machindra in the 11th minute. Binong made no mistake and directed the ball towards the goalpost after Hisub Thaplia's pass. With the

defeat, Machindra has been deprived of winning the title this season. Machindra won the title of KP Oli Cup and Bagmati Gold Cup consecutively. In the seventh minute of the game, Navayug missed the opportunity to score in a one-on-one situation with Machindra's goalkeeper Bishal Shrestha. His soft shot was easily controlled by goalkeeper Bishal. From the start of the

game, Machindra started to put pressure on the army. In the fourth minute, Bimal Ghartimagar's header was deflected off a free kick by Machindra's foreign player Omolaja Karim, and Devendra Tamang's header in the fifth minute was also missed. In the 22nd minute, Bimal's hard shot from Machchindra's Abhishek Gurung's pass was punched by Army goalkeeper Vikesh Kuthu.

Machindra was unlucky to double the lead in the 79th minute. While the goalkeeper of Army Vikesh was advancing, the ball hit by Machindra's Ayush Ghalan at the empty post hit the goal post and came back. In the 67th minute, Basant Jamba could not charge the ball to the goal post after receiving the ball from Army's Kamal Thapa. In the 70th minute, when the goalkeeper Vikesh was already beaten, Machindra's Stephen took control of the ball and could not make a pass for the goal post.

Army coach Meghraj KC responded that he was able to turn the result in his favor with the synergy of the new and old players. He said that Jhapa Gold Cup was the best of Mofalus and won by playing according to the strategy. Santosh Neupane, the coach of Machindra, said that even though the players played hard, they were unlucky to win. He opined that despite having half a dozen opportunities, the game was lost because he could not direct the ball towards the goal post. Army's Basant Zimba became the player of the match in the

game. He received Rs 11,000 in cash. The home team Jhapa-11 and Anfa Makwanpur will compete in the last quarter-final on Thursday.