East Bengal, Mukti Joddha in last 8

Defending champions East Bengal and Mukti Joddha of Bangladesh got past their opponents in contrasting styles to romp into the the quarter-finals of the 107th IFA Shield football tournament in Calcutta on Friday.

A determined East Bengal showed little mercy as they spanked lowly Mohammedan Sporting 5-1 in their last Group A league match while the visitors from Bangladesh failed to find their rhythm but managed to scrape past India under-19 1-0 in their last Group C engagement.

Both East Bengal and Mukti Joddha qualified for the quarter-finals by virtue of finishing on top of their respective groups.

Nam Dinh of Vietnam, who prevailed over India under-19 by a 3-1 margin, moved into the quarter-finals as the second team from Group C while Tollygunge Aggragami also secured a berth in the last eight stage as the second team from Group A.

While Mohun Bagan have already assured themselves a quarter-final berth from Group B, the three other quarter-finalists will be decided after the completion of the last two pre-quarter-final league matches on Saturday.

East Bengal, who began their title defence with a convincing 4-1 victory over Tollygunge Aggragami on the opening day of the tournament, maintained the same tempo as they drowned their hapless opponents in a deluge of goals.

The hard-working Jo Paul Ancheri, Isiaka Aboyemi, Suley Mussah, Chandan Das and mercurial striker I M Vijayan scored for East Bengal while striker Lawrence pulled one back for Mohammedan Sporting.

In-form Nigerian Emeka Achilefu scored the match-winner for Mukti Joddha two minutes from half time, in a lacklustre Group C encounter, heading home a centre from Ariful Kabir Farhad.

Achilefu had earlier scored a brace in his team's 4-1 triumph over Nam Dinh on Wednesday.

The match at the Mohun Bagan ground was mostly confined to midfield, with attacks few and far between, though Mukti Joddha enjoyed territorial domination.

Having won both its matches, the Bangladeshi club secured the top position in the group, with six points. Nam Dinh finished second, with three points, while the India Under-19 side had to bow out empty-handed.

Earlier reports:

F C Kochin hold Mohun Bagan
Tollygunge rout Mohd. Sporting
Palmeiras, Mohun Bagan record easy wins
Easy win for East Bengal