Bhubaneswar, April 24 Striker Alaeddine Ajaraie scored a triple as NorthEast United FC thoroughly dominated and dismantled Mohammedan Sporting 6-0 in the Kalinga Super Cup on Thursday, sealing their place in the quarterfinals of the event. With Alaeddine Ajaraie among four different goal scorers on the scoresheet, NorthEast also issued a statement of intent for the other teams remaining in the draw.
Jithin MS (3’) began the scoring early on before Ajaraie (18’, 57’, 90+2’) got into the act. Nestor Albiach Roger (42’) and Guillermo Fernandez Hierro (66’) scored the other two goals.
NorthEast United have had a penchant for scoring early in games this season and continued that trend, with a goal in the third minute. Jithin M.S. capitalised on some lacklustre Mohammedan defending to smartly volley Nestor Albiach's cross from inside the six-yard box and give his side the lead.
Mohammedan slowly grew into the game and in the 12th minute, Lalremsanga had the best chance for his side, after being played through on the right side of the box by a wavy Robi Hansda run. The angle was acute and yet the winger took a shot which was parried to safety by Gurmeet in NorthEast's goal.
NorthEast United smartly got a second in the 18th minute via the boots of the ISL's top scorer, Alaeddine Ajaraie. Guillermo Hierro played a square pass to the Moroccan outside the box, and with just a body turn, Ajaraie left his marker for dead, before driving into the box and calmly finishing in the far corner.
Ajaraie looked to have repaid the favour with a perfectly weighted cross delivered to Guillermo in the box. The Spaniard's header drifted just wide.
The Highlanders added a third three minutes before the break when Jithin stole the ball off Mohammedan's attempts to play from the back and squared a simple pass to Albiach. The Spaniard slammed his shot low and hard into the bottom corner to ease NorthEast into the comfort zone.
North East's complete dominance extended into the second half, and just before the hour mark, Ajaraie made it four. A low fizzing cross from Guillermo was directed toward the goal by a sliding Thoi Singh, only for Subhajit Bhattacharjee to make a smart reflex save. Unfortunately for him, the rebound fell straight to Ajaraie, who slammed it in from two yards out.
Robi Hansda almost pulled a miraculous goal back for Mohammedan, latching on to a cross 30 yards from goal and audaciously chipping Gurmeet, who was off his line. The ball bounced off the crossbar.
NorthEast added a fifth in the 66th minute, Guillermo finishing smartly after Ajaraie had played a brilliant pass to put him through on goal. With the game effectively wrapped up, the entire focus was on whether Ajaraie would get a hat-trick, and he duly did, converting an injury-time penalty to complete the rout.
Having been directly involved in four of the six goals scored, Alaeddine Ajaraie was presented the Kalinga Player of the Match award by eight-time national champion in women’s cycling, Ms. Minati Mohapatra, who is the first sportsperson from Odisha and fithe rst woman cyclist to win an Arjuna Award.
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