Bhubaneswar: Striker Alaeddine Ajaraie’s hattrick powered NorthEast United FC to thoroughly dominate and dismantled Mohammedan Sporting 6-0 in the Kalinga Super Cup at Kalinga Stadium here on Thursday.
The victory booked their place in the quarter finals of the tournament. Jithin MS (3’) began the scoring early on, before Ajaraie (18’, 57’, 90+2’) got into the act, eventually going on to score a hat-trick. Nestor Albiach Roger (42’) and Guillermo Fernandez Hierro (66’) scored the other two goals.
Having been directly involved in four of the six goals scored, Alaeddine Ajaraie was presented the Kalinga Player of the Match award by eight-time national champion in women’s cycling, Ms. Minati Mohapatra, who is the first sportsperson from Odisha and first woman cyclist to win an Arjuna Award.
NorthEast United have had a penchant for scoring early in games this season and continued that trend, with a goal in the third minute. Jithin MS capitalised on some lacklustre Mohammedan defending to smartly volley Nestor Albiach's cross from inside the six-yard box and give his side the lead.
NorthEast United smartly got a second in the 18th minute via the boots of the ISL's top scorer, Alaeddine Ajaraie. Guillermo Hierro played a square pass to the Moroccan outside the box, and with just a body turn, Ajaraie left his marker for dead, before driving into the box and calmly finishing in the far corner. Ajaraie looked to have repaid the favour with a perfectly weighted cross delivered to Guillermo in the box. The Spaniard's header drifted just wide.
The Highlanders added a third three minutes before the break, when Jithin stole the ball off Mohammedan's attempts to play from the back and squared a simple pass to Albiach. The Spaniard slammed his shot low and hard into the bottom corner to ease NorthEast into the comfort zone.
North East's complete dominance extended into the second half, and just before the hour mark Ajaraie made it four. A low fizzing cross from Guillermo was directed towards goal by a sliding Thoi Singh only for Subhajit Bhattacharjee to make a smart reflex save. Unfortunately for him, the rebound fell straight to Ajaraie who slammed it in from two yards out.
NorthEast added a fifth in the 66th minute, Guillermo finishing smartly after Ajaraie had played a brilliant pass to put him through on goal. With the game effectively wrapped up, the entire focus was on whether Ajaraie would get a hat-trick, and he duly did, converting an injury-time penalty to complete the rout.
