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Churchill Brothers 3 (Lagos 31, 75; Wolfe 53)
New Radiant 0
Churchill Brothers: Arindam Bhattacharya; Satish Singh, Dharmaraj Ravanan, Sanjay Balmuchu, Raju Yumnam; Anthony Pereira (Bineesh Balan 67), Lenny Rodrigues, Abedlhamid Shabana, Jaison Vales; Anthony Wolfe, Cristian Lagos (Ashley Fernandes 81)
New Radiant: Imran Mohamed; Ahmed Abdhulla, Ahmed Shafiu, Mohamed Sifan, Mohamed Rasheed; Mukuthar Naseer, Akram Abdhulla Gani, Ahmed Niyaz, Ali Fasir (Hamza Mohamed 70); Shamweel Gasim; Ibrahim Fazeel
Churchill Brothers registered a convincing 3-0 win over Maldives champions New Radiant in a Group E encounter of the AFC Cup at the Nehru Stadium in Fatorda, Margao, Goa on Tuesday evening.
Costa Rican Cristian Lagos scored once in each half while Trinidad & Tobago’s Anthony Wolfe netted in the second period as the I-League and Federation Cup holders cruised to victory.
There were a couple of surprises in the Churchill Brothers lineup as India international Denzil Franco and Australian defender Daniel Zeleny were only named on the bench with youngsters Satish Singh and Sanjay Balmuchu starting instead.
However the New Radiant eleven was pretty much as expected with Mohamed Umair only among the substitutes while veteran Ibrahim Fazeel started upfront in a foreigner-less team.
This was Churchill’s first AFC Cup fixture in Goa since 2010 and they nearly took the lead in the third minute when Raju Yumnam’s cross found an unmarked Lagos but the Costa Rican’s header missed the target.
The hosts were dominating possession with New Radiant offering very little but the visitors created a golden opportunity when Mukhtar Naseer’s cross picked out Ali Fasir inside the box but the Maldives international put his effort wide.
It was the only chance that New Radiant had created in the first half because otherwise it was one-way traffic. The only missing ingredient in Churchill’s play was the finishing as Wolfe and Lagos squandered good openings.
The deadlock was finally broken when Wolfe expertly chested down Satish’s cross for Lagos, who slotted past New Radiant keeper and captain Imran Mohamed. It was Lagos’ first-ever goal for the Goan club and a few minutes later he should have doubled his account but missed the target from a good position.
Churchill created plenty of chances before the interval but Abdelhamid Shabana, Wolfe and Lagos were all wasteful.
India international and Churchill skipper Lenny Rodrigues produced a good save off Imran at the start of the second half as the home team looked to get the second goal and put the game to bed. Some poor New Radiant defending brought Churchill’s second as Wolfe found the back of the net with a scorching shot.
The Maldives champions improved slightly after the hour mark as they saw the ball a lot more but Churchill threatened to score the third with Shabana and Anthony Pereira going close.
Lagos finally killed the game off by pouncing on a rebound and scoring past Imran, who had saved Shabana’s initial effort.
New Radiant couldn’t even get a consolation and were highly fortunate not to suffer a heavier defeat as Jaison Vales hit the woodwork while Wolfe squandered a one-on-one situation with Imran.
With the other group game between Singapore’s Home United and Indonesia’s Persipura Jayapura ending in a 1-1 draw, Churchill are now second and next have a double header with Home United.
