By Arfang M.S. Camara
BSIC and FBN bank became the first two teams to book their places into the semifinals of the ongoing late governor Jatta memorial Inter-Banks football tournament following their respective wins played at the Independence Stadium in Bakau on Sunday.
The Sahelo-Saharienne Bank for Investment and Commerce (BSIC) was the first team to go through to the last four of the tournament after defeating Bloom Bank 5-4 on post-match penalty shootout following a goalless draw in the regulation time during the first encounter played at the Stadium on Sunday.
Bloom Bank, who qualified into the quarterfinals of the tournament after collecting five points, are now eliminated out of the tournament by BSIC, who also qualified into the quarterfinals stage on five points as well after three group games.
Speaking in an interview shortly after the game, Lamin Njie, head coach of BSIC Bank said though they won on penalty shootout but his players didn’t play as expected.
“We will go back to the training ground and improve on our goal scoring, because our intention is to win the tournament and for that to happen, we need to be scoring goals,” he said.
Elsewhere, FBN Bank also booked their place into the last four of the competition after defeating VISTA Bank 8-7 on post-match penalty shootout following another barren draw in the regulation time during the second encounter on Sunday.
FBN, which is a subsidiary to First Bank of Nigeria, qualified into the quarterfinals after collecting six points during their group stage, while VISTA Bank who are now sent packing out of the tournament also collected five points to qualify to the quarterfinals in their group stage.
At the time of going to press, on Tuesday, reigning champions, Zenith Bank was in action with Guarantee Trust Bank in the first encounter, before Access Bank taking on Trust Bank in the late encounter.