PUNE: Eltin Lima was right on target as he provided the most necessary ammunition for Ventura to make a loud noise in the semi-finals of inter-corporate football mania played here on Saturday.In relatively murkier conditions, Ventura turned on the style, smashing home three goals against AXA, before clinching a resounding victory to lock horns with WNS Entrance in title clash on Sunday.Fielding virtually their key players for the semi-finals, Ventura began their campaign rather sedately; hardly taking any risk to set up an attack for first five minutes of the game.After getting a feel of the wet conditions and opponent’s gameplan, Ventura accelerated their pace and began pounding AXA’s fort. Soon centre forward Eltin Lima brought fans to their feet in 7th minute with a cracking header on Delzad Marzapani’s corner.A minute later, AXA missed a wonderful opportunity of scoring an equalizer when their striker picked hole and sprinted inside the box as Ventura keeper effected a wonderful save.In the same minute, Sri Jagtap set the attack for Ventura from the right flank and lobbed the ball for Eltin Lima, who just had to tap the ball in, but he floundered.Just a minute before the lemon break, Ventura devised a delightful move from the right flank. After dodging a couple of AXA defenders, Sri Jagtap pushed himself hard into AXA’s citadel and thumped a scorching shot to the left of diving AXA keeper. Unfortunately for Ventura, the ball brushed the sidebars before sailing out for a free kick.Eight minutes into the second half, Ventura found themselves 2-0 leading, when Sri Jagtap detonated an explosive lob from the half-line to waiting Eltin Lima who glided the ball at the back of AXA keeper’s net.In 47th minute, Eltin Lima burst into life, first running hard through AXA’s fort, and then setting up an attack for Celestin Fernandes, who smacked the third goal for Ventura.“It was a tremendous victory. We played a very good game. If we continue the good work, we will win the title,” Eltin Lima told Herald after the match.“WNS Entrance is a good team. We have not taken them lightly. We will field our best team for the final and go at them hard,” he added.“We were on song in the first half itself when Eltin scored two goals for us. The second half too was good,” Delzad Marzapani said.In another semi-finals, WNS Entrance defeated Wipro BPO 5-4 in a tiebreak. Both teams were nil-nil at the end of the game. Denzil Fernandes was the villain for Wipro, missing the penalty, while others converted their penalties. Four goals, however, were not enough for Wipro, compared to WNS’ five, to sail into the final.RESULTS: SEMI-FINALS: Ventura 3 (Eltin Lima 2, Celestin Fernandes) bt AXA 0; WNS Etrance 5 (Tony Mehta, Baptist Mendonca, Baptist Lobo, Kenneith Fernandes, Allen Almeida) bt Wipro BPO 4 (Micheal D’Cruz, Habib Shah, Ryan Susai, Sandesh Gadkari)
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