It was a total dominance for Ananda College and Maris Stella College as they won their respective matches 2-0 and 5-0 at the City Football Complex at the 3rd day of the President’s Cup.
Al Mubarak College vs. Ananda College
The boys in maroon had the lion share of possession as Vidura Madushanka and Sachintha Rathnayake established themselves as the Anandian forerunners in attack.
Thilan Salitha of Ananda conjured up a great through pass early in the game and it was matched with the perfectly timed run by Sachintha who slotted in the 1st goal.
It was Sachintha once more who snatched the second with a delightful diagonal ball from Vidura to calmly beat the keeper and find the back of the net.
Al Mubarak College unfortunately seemed out of sorts when on the ball as they were not able to bring the game outside their own half.
Final Score – Al Mubarak College 0 – 2 Ananda College
Maris Stella College vs. Thurstan College
Maris Stella had no mercy in their style of play as they demolished Thurstan College with a dominating performance that rarely saw the ball leaving the Thurstan half.
Anjana Gunawardene assisted twice for Mohamed Sajid to head the ball in to goal from two corners, thus showing the prowess Maris Stella possessed in set pieces.
Anjana eventually bagged one for himself as well with a brilliant run down the right side where he found out an out of sorts Dankaja Madanayaha in goal that resulted in an easy finish.
Nisal Silva also got his name written on the score sheet with another fumble from the Thurstan keeper that resulted in an easy tap in.
Kanishka Silva eventually scored the last goal for the team to seal the deal at the brink of full time through a solo effort down the left side.
Final Score – Maris Stella College 5 – 0 Thurstan College
De Mazenod College v Muslim Central College, Kalutara
De Mazenod College seemed to have the upper hand of this match from kickoff, continuously troubling the Muslim Central College, Kalutara’s defence. They dominated the attacking half with numerous shots on goal but failed to convert as most of them were not on target.
Raheem Deenu had the best opportunity to score a goal by then when he brilliantly timed a header for Pramuditha Gunasekara’s cross. Unfortunately the Kalutara custodian made a superb save to keep things level.
The rain of shots finally gave way when Ranju Silva scored the first goal of the day with a brilliant free kick which was preceded by a clever fake from Pramuditha which confused both the defenders and the keeper, as De Mazenod lead 1-0 at half time.
The Kalutara boys seemed to push up in the second sending shivers down the Mazenodian back four but the onslaught was stopped on many occasions by the keeper Romesh Chathuranga.
Muslim Central made things level from another free kick and ironically the kick was taken from the same spot as the first goal. The Muslim Central player made the kick preceded by a fake and although Romesh managed to get his fingertips on it it bounced off the bar onto the side and was safely put in by a Kalutara forward.
Muslim managed to hold off the Kandana rampage until the final whistle but was highly criticized for wasting time with injuries being treated on the pitch.
During the penalty shootouts all Mazenodian except Ravindu Fernando managed to find the back of the net whereas Muslim Central had one miss off the bar and the last was punched away Romesh to put his team in the quarter finals.
Final Score – De Mazenod 1(5) – 1(4) Muslim Central
Nalanda College v Hindu College
Final Score – Nalanda College 4 – 0 Hindu College
