Zahira romp to 7 goal win over Thomians

Zahira College romped to a comfortable victory against S.Thomas’ College, Mt. Lavinia today at the Kelaniya Football Complex. This result guarantees the Maradana side a spot in the next round while the Thomians’ hopes of making the cut have disappeared.

Zahira College came into the game as overwhelming favourites having sealed their spot in the knockout stages while the boys from Mount Lavinia had very slim hopes of qualifying to the next stage.

As expected the Maradana side took charge of the ball with Mohammed Aakib & Farood Faiz knocking the ball about beautifully as they shook off their shackles. The Thomians, who set themselves up in a defense-oriented game did manage to hold the Zahirians off in the initial stages but were first opened up in the 9th minute. After some good work down the middle, #8 tried his luck by kicking the ball from the edge of the box but saw his effort sail over.

Zahira College took a deserved lead two minutes later when Mohammes Shafran’s cross from the right found Mohammed Hammadh inside the box. The winger brought the ball down and took his time in making amends for his initial miss.

The lead was doubled in the 13th minute when Shaheel Azhar’s low driven cross beat everyone inside the box and fell to Aakib, who slotted it home comfortably.

With more than 80% of the possession, Zahira College continued to push for a third goal but was denied on multiple occasions by the Thomian custodian, Arshad Hameem. Hameem was upto the task in blocking multiple one-on-one efforts, much to the dismay of the likes of Azhar & Hammadh.

The visitors made it 3-0 in the 43rd minute when Farood Faiz’s beautifully lobbed ball floated over the defence and perfectly into the path of Hammadh, who did wonderfully to loft the ball over the keeper and into the net on the half volley.

Half Time: Zahira College 3-0 S.Thomas’ College

Zahira College kicked off the second half in the same way they ended the first by taking it to the lads from the school by the sea. Even though the game was played at a slightly more subdued pace than the first 45 minutes, Zahira College continued to dominate.

They were nearly caught off guard by the Thomians in the 54th minute however, when Afkar Laffar initiated a counter attack and freed up Tharindu Jayasekara to go on a run. The lanky central defender took a shot on goal after driving into the box but saw his shot saved.

Two minutes later, the visitors made it 4-0 after Hammadh managed to be the first man to get to a clearance by the Zahira defence. The striker repeated his first half antics by scoring on the half-volley once again.

The Maradana side did take their foot off the gas from there on in with the next 10 minutes not creating any noteworthy chances. This was only until the 68th minute however, as substitute Mohammed Sajid got in on the action by scoring off a cross that came in from the left side.

They added another 2 minutes later when a low-driven cross beat the whole Thomian defence to fall at the feet of Hammadh, who scored after a ricochet to grab his fourth of the game.

In the 72nd minute of the game, Shafran scored his first of the game and Zahira’s seventh when he sent in a low driven shot from the right after Farood Faiz unlocked the Thomian defence down the middle.

The visitors really had plenty of chances to make it 8, but seemed to be more than satisfied with the shift they had put in.

Zahira skipper Farood Faiz speaking to ThePapare.com said, “We hope to continue playing like this in the next round too. We played passing football and hope it will work for us in the next round too.”

“I think we played fairly well, but we lacked practice. We hope to work together to improve the side’s chemistry and go on to challenge in the trophy games”, said Thomian skipper Dion Dias.

ThePapare.com Man of the Match – Mohammed Hammadh (Zahira College)