Mahindra, Salgaocar shown the door

Defending champions Mahindra United and former champions Salgoacar were shown the door on the opening day of the 26th Federation Cup Football Championship in Bangalore on Wednesday.

Mahindra lost 2-3 to unfancied Fransa Sports Club, Goa, while Salgaocar suffered a shock 2-5 defeat at the hands of DTDC Tollygunge Agragami.

The winning teams will now meet in the quarter-finals of the competition on November 28.

The jeepmen were caught on the wrong foot as Fransa went a goal up in the fourth minute. Sebastio Endro found the net for the Goan team.

The Mumbai team attacked to regain lost ground, and after frenzied efforts scored the equaliser in the 43rd minute as India international Abhishek Yadav scored off a pass from captain Khalid Jamil.

After changing sides, Fransa struck again in the 58th minute through Jules Alberto Dias to take a 2-1 lead. But before the celebrations could cool down, Mahindra restored parity when Yadav scored again.

Fransa found the match-winner through Peter Rodrigues, who neatly headed in a lofted free-kick from Sanjiv Mario.

While the Mumbai team suffered the reverse despite having a major share of the exchanges, Salgaocar lost in the tie-breaker after the teams were locked 1-1 after regulation time and extra-time.

In the tie-breaker, Tollygunge struck four times, while Salgaocar could score only once.

Tollygunge found the target in the 27th minute through a goal by Surajit Bose following a pass by Kabijit Khotel.

Salgaocar had to wait till the 74th minute to secure the equaliser through captain Bello Rasaq, who slammed the ball in after a deflection from Tollygunge custodian Arindam Ghosh, who poorly checked a header by Marcos Pereira.

Salgaocar manouvered well to give themselves some chances, but their creative play was lost in the face of Tollygunge's resistance.

With extra-time also not yielding any result, the teams went into the penalty shoot-out.

Tarif Ahammad, Suley Musah, Gauranga Dutta and Akeem Abolanlee scored for Tollygunge.

For Salgaocar, the only success came through Bernard Pires. While the attempt by Roberto Fernando was saved by Arindam Ghosh, Marcos Pereira hit the crossbar and Salgaocar's hopes were dashed with it.