Saif subdue Swadhinata to sail into semis

Rahim Uddin and Maraz Hossain struck on both sides of the interval to steer Saif Sporting Club to the semifinals of Bashundhara Group Federation Cup with a 2-0 win over Swadhinata Krira Sangha in the second quarterfinal at the Birshreshtha Shaheed Mostafa Kamal Stadium in Kamalapur tonight.

Last edition's finalist Saif are set to face the winner between Abahani Dhaka and Sheikh Jamal DC in the semifinal on January 6 at the same venue.

Even though Saif had to toil hard to overcome newcomers Swadhinata in the recently-concluded Independence Cup quarterfinal, they clearly dominated today's match. Also, Swadhinata were expecting to cause an upset, having held Saif to a 3-3 draw in a practice match before the start of Federation Cup.

However, the charges of Argentinian Andres Cruciani had saved their best performance in the season for tonight. Saif had the midfield under  control while constantly threatening Swadhinata's backline from the outset with Nigerian striking duo Mfon Udoh and Emeka Ogbugh.

Emeka exposed Swadhinata's defense in the 34th minute with only goalkeeper Sarwar Jahan to beat but the Nigerian striker surprisingly drove miles wide of the target from inside the box before Mfon was well thwarted by Sarwar in the 39th minute.

Saif finally broke the deadlock in the 42nd minute with a tap in from Rahim after the ball had slipped off goalkeeper Sarwar's grip when he attempted to catch a Jamal Bhuiyan corner.

After resumption, Saif kept pressing to double the lead but Swadhinata came close to equalise from a counter but a long-range effort from Bosnian forward Nedo Turkovic went inches over the bar in the 52nd minute.

Next minute, it was Nedo again, who saw his side-volley grabbed by goalkeeper Pappu Hossain while a Rasel Ahmed volley narrowly missed the target in the 55th minute.

Having survived three successive threats, Saif went 2-0 ahead with a brilliant strike from Maraz, who capitalised on a through pass from Uzbek Asror Gafurov to place the ball past the advancing goalkeeper Sarwar in the 72nd minute.

Swadhinata continued their efforts till the last minute to get back in the match but eventually they had to settle for an elimination from the quarterfinals, the same stage they bowed out from the Independence Cup earlier.

In the end, Swadhinata left the ground with heads held high from having played back-to-back quarterfinals of season's two tournaments after being promoted to top-flight football.