National champions East Bengal shocked

National League champions East Bengal crashed out of the Federation Cup football tournament, losing to Sporting Clube de Goa by a solitary goal in their opening match at the Nehru stadium in Madras on Sunday.

The young Goa side will meet Tollygunge Aggragami of Calcutta next in the quarter-finals. Tollygunge got the better of Hindustan Aeronautics, Bangalore, 1-0 in another pre-quarter-final match played earlier.

Alex Colaco's goal in the eighth minute of the second session gave Sporting Clube victory. The goal was the result of a lapse by India goalkeeper Shamboran Mukherjee. He adopted a casual approach as he attempted to collect a 40-yard floater from the left by Colaco. The ball slipped out of his grasp, dropped on his knee and tricked into goal.

Thereafter the Goa side survived a torrid assault from East Bengal but their defence held on to ensure victory.

East Bengal's best chance to equalize came in the 74th minute following a melee in the box, but Omoloja Olaken was unlucky to see the crossbar come in the way of his shot.

In the earlier pre-quarter-final match, diminutive linkman Surajit Das scored the match-winner in the 17th minute of the second session to seal the fate of HAL.

The goal was a superb effort by Das. Receiving the ball from the left flank, Moses Oria found a gap in the HAL defence and laid a lovely pass for Das, who sprinted into the box, latched on to the ball and shot home on the run, giving HAL defenders William Crasta, Vinod Kumar, Santosh Kiran and even goalkeeper Gumpe Rime no time to react.

Earlier Federation Cup reports:
Day 1: Dempo win Fed Cup opener
Day 2: Golden goal win for Sporting Club de Goa
Day 3: Air India down Mohd. Sporting; SBT win
Day 4: Dempo shock F C Kochin: Federation Cup