The Guyana Defence Force (GDF) and Santos Football Clubs made it into the quarter-final round of the 19th annual Kashif and Shanghai Football Tournament after two hard fought battles Sunday evening at the Plaisance Community Centre Ground.

Laurex Fraser

Both matches demanded a lot out from the teams both physically and mentally for they were forced to play 90 minutes on the rain-affected ground which got worse by the second as the players stepped into holes in the exposed muddy areas of the field.

In the feature match of the double header GDF ended Buxton All Stars chances of the one million dollar top prize when they needled them  from the tournament 1-0 while Santos dusted aside Mahaica Determinators in a 2 – 0 affair.

This now sets up two quarter-final battles with GDF opposing Western Tigers and Santos challenging Bakewell Top XX.

From the commencement of the feature encounter both teams were forced to adopt  an aerial ball style of play as carpet football was almost impossible after the conclusion of the curtain raiser.

Stellon David

The entire first half was controlled wholly by Buxton who had the more accurate passes and far more shots on target than  the opposition.

It was a `hard luck night’ for the strikers in both games as whenever they came dangerously close to the uprights and attempted to shoot they made absolutely no connection with the ball or the shot was almost completely halted by water or the thick-wet mud.

GDF were on the back foot at the conclusion of the first half  which was clearly dominated by the Buxton All Stars.

Things got worse for the army team when they lost Ryan Morrison via the red card route and were reduced to 10 men.

But luck was on the army boys’ side.

Michael Pedro

In the 70th minute a low shot was fired at Buxton’s custodian Ryan Robinson who dived in attempting to save the shot but the ball stopped one yard in front of him in a puddle of water and Stellon David made no mistake in  following up the shot to blast it into the back of the net for the goal that pushed GDF through to the quarter-finals.

Laurex Fraser, who recently turned 20, scored a 28th minute goal for Santos which got the game moving and made it twice as hard for the opposition to get back into the game.

It was never a comfortable match for the Santos team even  after doubling  their lead in the 53rd minute compliments of a Micheal Pedro strike from just around six yards.