497 days after the COVID-19 pandemic put a pause to one of Nigeria’s illustrious grassroots football competitions, the GTBank Masters Cup returned on Friday, June 18 to decide the winners of the 9th season. The final and third-place matches for the male and female category were played at the Campos Stadium, Lagos Island.
FINAL
Eko Boys 2-0 Anwar-Ul-Islam: Eko Boys erased the disappointment of last season’s early exit by claiming the trophy for the first time with victory over Anwar-Ul-Islam at Campos Stadium.
In a final that jumped above the heights of the blockbuster semi-finals that made this an all-Mainland Schools showpiece, Anwar-Ul-Islam had a few chances but were denied by Eko Boys goalie, who comfortably saved all their threatening strikes and their failure to capitalize was ruthlessly punished when Yakubu Abdul Lateef opened the scoring with a sublime finish inside 12 minutes. At the half-hour mark, Muhammad Ibrahim ensured the boys from Mushin won their first Masters Cup trophy by driving low and powerfully past the Anwar-Ul-Islam Goalie to make it 2-0 before half-time.
The opening minutes of the second half rarely touched the heights of the first half with chances few and far. Season 8 finalists Anwar-Ul-Islam, made some tactical changes and began to attack more through the flanks in search of a comeback but a resilient Eko Boys defense were able to keep the score-line the same to clinch the title, the final whistle sparking huge celebrations among players, fans and members of staff at Campos Mini Stadium.
Lead-Forte Gate (Walk-over) 3-0 GreensSprings: Unfortunately, we could not experience a blockbuster final in the girl’s category because Greensprings didn’t show up to challenge last season’s champion. Lead-forte Gate walked their opponents over to retain the Cup.
Third Place
Ansar-Ud-Deen Girls College Itire 1-5 Queens College: Grace & Uchechi propel Queens College past Ansar-Ud-Deen into third place. The six-time Champions and Season 8 runners-up displayed a Master Class to win third place at Campos Stadium.
Not the biggest fixture of the day but we ended up having a six-goal thriller thanks to Grace and Uchechi combining to score 5, a brace, and a hattrick for the Queens.
The queens started the game like a house on fire with Grace starting the fireworks inside ten minutes followed by Ucheci’s sumptuous strike to double the queen’s advantage before half-time.
The Queens came out in the second half and picked up from where they stopped in the first half with Uchechi scoring her second and putting the Queens three goals up inside thirty-nine minutes.
A few minutes later, Wunola pulled one back for AUD girls but the Queens replied quickly via Grace’s brilliant finish to restore their three-goal lead. We all thought the girls were done with scoring until Uchechi pulled a stunner to complete a hat trick in the closing stages of the Game.
Kings College (Walk-over) 3-0 GreensSprings: Just like in the female category, Greensprings didn’t show up to challenge the Kings for third place. Again Greensprings were walked over and last season’s Champions, Kings College took third place without any contest.
Fela is the Co-founder of MediaVision Limited .
