HETAUDA: Nepal Police Club (NPC) thrashed Friends Club (FC) 3-0 and entered into last four of the ongoing Martyr's Memorial Makawanpur Gold Cup in Hetauda on Monday.

NPC rode on lethal striker Bharat Shah's first half hattrick to edge Jawlakhel-based Friends Club today. Shah opened the scoring in the 12th minute and notched his brace in the 42nd minute of the game. A minute later, Shah completed his hattrick after poaching from the six-yard area.

In the second half, FC came out all guns blazing but to no avail. FC's foreign recruits Fofana and Sayankako missed gilt edge chances to reduce the arrears in the hour mark.

NPC's custodian Satrudhan Chaudhary thwarted FC's Ramesh Bartaula's fierce drive with a brilliant reflex save and preserved the lead.

Later, NPC striker Bharat Shah was awarded man of the match for his scintillating performance and bagged a cash purse of Rs 10,000.

During the post-match presentation, NPC head coach Ananta Raj Thapa said, "We took this game as a practice match for semi-finals. After taking a 3-0 lead in the first half, we played strategical football in the second half of the game."

He further said Ravi Paswan, Suman Lama and Ajit Bhandari will be back in the semi-final game. Likewise, FC's head coach Chet Narayan Shrestha said, "Due to poor defending, we lost the game today."

NPC will play against the hosts Makawanpur-11 in the semi-finals to secure their berth in the final of the tournament.

According to the organisers, the winning team will take away a cash purse of Rs 0.8 million and the runner-up will bag Rs 0.4 million along with medals, certificates and trophy.