A brilliant hat-trick by Nigerian Dudu Omagbemi on Monday saw Salgaocar SC power their way into the semifinals of the Durand Cup football tournament at the Ambedkar stadium in Delhi.

In the last set of quarterfinal league matches, Salgaocar sunk Assam Regimental Centre 3-0 to top group 'C' with the maximum six points to book their last-four berth.

Taking on Salgaocar on Wednesday will be East Bengal who made it to the knock-out stage by virtue of a better goal difference after suffering a 0-1 reverse against MEG, Bangalore.

That outcome left East Bengal tied with MEG and Air India on three points in group 'B' but the former's 4-0 win over A-I in an earlier match more than made up for their loss today.

"The whole team was very complacent, including myself. We deserve the result," said a boiling Subhas Bhowmick, coach of the Kolkata giants, after the match.

The Bengal team actually did well, maintaining ball possession and creating opportunities for the strikers. Unfortunately, none of those chances were converted.

On the other hand, MEG cashed in the one that came their way when captain Ajit Kumar headed in after experienced East Bengal goalkeeper Sangram Mukherjee failed to hold on to a high cross.

As late as the 85th minute, East Bengal had an easy chance for an equaliser but Chandan Das, with an open net in front of him, let his team down with a header that went wide.

Salgaocar though were on song today, and the ARC could do nothing but face the music. Early in the 12th minute, Omagbemi blasted in a powerful left-footer after a shot from Sebastio Endro from the left had hit the near post.

That set the tempo for the match and ARC's efforts in taking the attack to the enemy camp were thwarted by some tight defending by Salgaocar.

After the break, Omagbemi scored his second goal feeding on a pass from Dharamjit Singh in the 53rd minute and then punished some shoddy goalkeeping by Jembo Singh, who failed to gather a simple cross and left open the net for the Nigerian to complete his hat-trick.