Nepal Armed Police Force (APF) Club battled to a 1-0 win over departmental rivals Tribhuvan Army Club (TAC) in the quarter-finals of the Birat Gold Cup football tournament here on Monday.

Skipper Ganesh Lawati scored in the ninth minute of the 20-minute of extra time after a goalless deadlock in normal time. Lawati, who walked away with man-of-the-match award, headed in a cross from Shyam Nepali. APF will now play against defending champions Jhapa XI for a place in the final. Jhapa made it to the last four with a 5-1 win over George Telegraph of Kolkata on Sunday.

TAC coach Megh Raj KC said his team could not come up with a better performance and lost the match. “Our players are literally burn out after playing one after tournament without getting enough time to rest. The result was that they unable to play with vigour,” said KC. Nawayug Shrestha, who starred in Nepal’s successful South Asian Games football tournament in India, was kept at bay by APF.

His APF counterpart Janak Singh rued on the missed chances. “We should have closed out the match in normal time but failed to converted our chances,” said Singh. MMC will take on Nepal Police Club on Tuesday.