Chittagong Abahani will take on Rahmatganj in the second semifinal of the Walton Independence Cup on Tuesday as the defending champions brushed aside former champions Sheikh Russel with a 4-2 win in the fourth and final quarterfinal at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday.
The port city side's emphatic win completed the semifinal lineup as Arambagh had, on Friday, beat league champions Abahani to set up the first semifinal clash against Sheikh Jamal for Monday.
Chittagong Abahani, the new powerhouse of domestic football, had led the premier league for a considerable amount of time before slipping up at the last stages to eventually finish third. The club management sacked coach Saiful Bari Titu, giving the reins to his deputy Zulfikar Mahmud Mintu, yet their fortunes hardly looked bright.
The big-spenders struggled in the group stages of the Independence Cup as well and needed an injury-time goal from Tawhidul Alam Sabuj against Arambagh in their last group game to squeeze into the quarterfinals.
However, they turned up in style for yesterday's game and an emphatic victory in the quarterfinal will definitely give them a shot in the arm ahead of their game against Rahmatganj.
It was again that man Sabuj, the top-scorer among the locals in the league, who started the goal-fest at the BNS yesterday. The port city side went close to scoring with several attempts from a goalmouth scramble, but Sohel Rana's eventual effort went wide off the far post.
Sabuj broke the deadlock a minute later, volleying home from the middle of the box. The goal gave way to a mad-cap first half as Sheikh Russel hit back four minutes later, with Mehbub Hasan Noyon burying one home with a superb volley from outside the six-yard box following a low cross from Khalekuzzaman Sabuj.
Sohel restored Chittagong Abahani's lead with an opportunist strike from the top of the box six minutes later. Then the pace of the game died down a bit as both sides shored up their defensive duties, but the port city side scored twice in the last few minutes of the first half to take the game away from their opposition.
The third goal came in the 43rd minute when young forward Abdullah floated a free-kick from the corner of the left-hand of the box, with the ball sailing into the top right corner of the net.
Shakhawat Hossain Rony made it 4-1 on the stroke of half time for the defending champions, poking in Abdullah's free-kick at far post.
The second half was a much tame affair compared to the first as there was little goalmouth action. Substitute Javed Khan's strike from the top of the six-yard on 74 minutes only reduced the margin of defeat, but they could barely pose a threat to Chittagong Abahani's commanding lead.
