Kathmandu, June 26:

Nepal Police Club (NPC) entered the fourth AFC President’s Cup semi-finals as the Group A winners despite their 2-2 draw against Regar TadAZ of Tajikistan in Malaysia on Thursday.

The Nepali club accumulated five points and the Tajikistani team earned seven from three matches, but the NPC won the group after their results against Pakistan WAPDA FC — who finished bottom of the table in the group — were not counted. After the results were scrapped, both the teams were reduced to four points each and the NPC won the group on better goal difference.

The NPC scored seven goals and conceded four, while Regar TadAZ netted six and yielded four.

The NPC had beaten Abahani Limited of Bangladesh 4-1 and the Nepali ‘A’ Division team was held to a 1-1 draw by WAPDA. Regar TadAZ had beaten WAPDA and Abahani by the same margin of 2-1. Tajikistan qualified for the last four as the best runner-up team among the remaining eight clubs in the qualifying tournament.

The NPC and Regar TadAZ joined Group B winners Dordoi-Dynamo of Kyrgyzstan and Kanbawza of Myanmar in the semi-finals, slated for September 19-21 at the Spartak Stadium in Bishkek, the capital city of Kyrgyzstan. The Nepali club had beaten Regar TadAZ in the semi-final last year in Pakistan.

In the last Group A match on Thursday, the NPC took the lead in the first half when Chetan Ghimire scored in the 33rd minute. Regar TadAZ levelled the scores in the 58th minute when Radimov headed home on a corner kick.

The in-form Jumanu Rai, who scored a hat-trick against Abahani and the equaliser against WAPDA, was on target again. Rai put the NPC ahead in the 68th minute when he scored on a rebound after Chetan’s corner kick.

Regar TadAZ found the equaliser in the dying moments. It was Radimov again, who beat NPC goalkeeper Ritesh Thapa, who had made several brilliant saves during the match.

NPC SQUAD: Ramesh Budhathoki (Captain), Ritesh Thapa (Goalkeeper), Deepak Paudel, Dipendra Paudel, Roshan Karki, Parbat Pandey, Jumanu Rai, Chetan Ghimire, Ananta Thapa, Bhola Silwal, Suman Subedi.