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Holders’ bright start

Abahani 6-0 Police SC; Feni SC 0 - OArambagh KS

Sports Reporter
Abahani’s bid to defend the title of season's curtain raiser got off to a sparkling start when the holders mauled Bangladesh Police 6-0 in their opening match of the Grameenphone Federation Cup finals at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday.
Nigerian striker Lucky Paul celebrated his debut with a brace while Mohammad Robin, Ghanaian duo Twum Frank and Awudu Ibrahim and defender Wali Faisal struck one goal each to ensure a comfortable win for Abahani.
The Dhanmondi-based outfit toyed with the services team and took a comfortable 4-0 lead in the first half of the one-sided game before adding two more goals in the second half to announce their credentials for the title.
Abahani's Iranian coach AliAkbar has got genuine reason to be optimistic after watching his strikers in form, unlike the last season when they misfired which resulted in the club being derailed from the race for the professional league title.
Bangladesh Police showed early signs of promise as they came close to taking the lead in the third minute but Abahani's national goalkeeper Shahidul Alam Sohel tipped the Nazmul Hasan cross over the bar to keep Police at bay. That was the only notable attack during the match from Police and after that they mostly chased their own shadows.
Abahani built most of their attacks from the right flank and came close three times before actually taking the lead in the 14th
minute through Robin.
New-recruit Towhidul Alam floated a corner from the right side and Robin cleverly drove a low shot inside the box past goalkeeper Azam Khan, who was hapless to concede the second one from Frank.
Frank capitalising on a Ibrahim through-pass dodged past two defenders and the goalkeeper to fire home two minutes later while Paul found his first goal in the 31st minute with goalkeeper Azam failing to read an over-head lob.
Ibrahim, who has been playing for Abahani for the last six seasons, made it 4-0 with a tap in the 37th minute after former Sheikh Jamal defender Nasirul Islam ran in from the right side to enter box and cut it back for Ibrahim.
Abahani's new striker Paul increased the margin in the 54th minute before Wali celebrated his return to the Sky Blues tent after two seasons with a free-kick from the edge of the box three minutes before the final whistle.
“Abahani are a the better side this time compared to the last season in which we suffered the lack of genuine strikers. But, we have to hard work to defend the title and need more combination between the strikers and the midfielders,” said Abahani coachAkbar.
“We knew that we would lose the match but the refereeing should have been fair. We expected to concede two or three goals but surely not six,” said Police coach Selim Khan.
In the day's other match, Arambagh KS and Feni Soccer Club played out a goalless draw at the Birshreshtha Shaheed Mostafa Kamal Stadium in Kamalapur.