The expected thriller between Central Railway and Goa XI was a keen contest as both sides were much fitter and played a fast game. There exchanged fierce looks and few harmless tackles.

But when in the regulation time the two teams failed to make changes on the board, the result was decided in tie-breaker where Central Railway won 4-3 after being restricted to ten men as Nicolav Mendes was given marching orders by referee Dhanraj More for double bookings.

Goa XI, with a smattering of former International in their ranks, delighted the goodly crowd with their ball skills and short passes and mounted innumerable raids on the Central Railway goal.

However, some stout defending on Central’s part and some wayward shooting saw the match end goalless in the regulation time.

Central Railway should thank their goalkeeper Manoj Nair for taking them to tie breaker without conceding a goal and then brought off a beautiful save of Elvis Pereira kick in the tie breaker.

Goa XI were well served by their captain Lawrence Gomes in the midfield and whose two goal strikes were saved by Central goalkeeper Manoj Nair. Pascal Pereira of Goa XI was good in the upfront but could not convert his chances into goals.

In the earlier match, Air India got the better half Century Rayon 4-2 via tie-breaker. In spite of Century Rayon dominating the first half and sharing the ball control with Air India in the second half, their key players Philip Gonsalves, Milton Fernandes and Jayanand P could not score because of the alert goal keeper Vijay Swami of Air India.

Results (Quarter final)
Air India 4 (Santan D’souza , K Raez , Anil Kumar , David Cardoz ) bt Century Rayon 2 (Milton Fernandes , Anil Kumar).