KATHMANDU: Nepal Police Club (NPC) and NIBL Friends Club made it to the quarter-finals of the British Gurkha Cup here today.

Title favourites NPC rested five of their regular players but still managed to come with a 2-0 win against Samsung Jawalakhel Youth Club (JYC). The departmental team topped Group ‘A’ with nine points while Friends Club defeated Eastern Region-XI 5-1 to script six points and qualify as the runner-up. JYC and Eastern-XI are out of the tournament.

Pradip Baniya provided NPC the lead converting a cross from Chetan Ghimire in the 19th minute. NPC doubled their lead when Chetan Ghimire converted the spotkick in the 66th minute. NPC were awarded a spot kick after Hem Gurung brought down Chetan inside the area.

NPC rested their key players including influential striker Ju Manu Rai, Bhola Silwal, Suman Subedi, Rabin Shrestha and Dipak Poudel. Coach Birat Krishna Shrestha said he was confident of his experiment. “I knew I could rely in this set and they didn’t let me down. We could have come with better result had the plans been perfectly implemented,” added Shrestha.

JYC, who ended up third with three points, made few attempts but failed to score. Pankaj Shahi missed a chance to widen NPC’s winning margin after his shot rebounded off the post in the dying moments of the match.

Earlier, Buddha Chemjong scored a brace in Friends’ comprehensive win over Eastern-XI. Nirajan Khadka struck for Friends in a one-on-one with Eastern-XI goalie Padam Limbu in the 18th minute following a cross from Bharat Khawas. Pukar Gahat Raj then doubled the lead in the 31st. Buddha struck in the 66th beating the goalkeeper and a minute later Bharat Khawas took the tally to 4-0 with a close range finish. Rupak Shrestha denied the Eastern-XI a goal when, in the 83rd minute, Friends’ custodian saved Rajin Dhimal’s shot.

Friends added yet another goal in the 75th minute, Buddha taking the ball from the centre and firing in the fifth goal of his team. Rajin finally pulled back a consolation goal as his powerful strike deflected off Friends skipper Nur Raj Kafle into the nets.