National Football League champions Dempo Sports Club underlined their class while defeating state rivals Churchill Brothers 2-0 to storm into the semi-finals of the Federation Cup in Ludhiana on Monday.
African imports stole the victory for Dempo. Nigerian Ranti Martins opened the scoring in the 14th minute while compatriot Edeh Chidi doubled the lead in the 37th.
Dempo now take on Mumbai's Mahindra United in the second semi-final on Wednesday.
Churchill's had to play most of the game with 10 men after goalkeeper Vinay Singh was sent off by referee Rizwan-ul Haq in the 17th minute for handling the ball outside the area.
Lalit Thapa took his place in goal as D Raju made way for the substitute goalkeeper.
The match was expected to be closely fought but it turned out one-sided.
The numerical advantage allowed Dempo, who were anyway dominating the early exchanges, to start toying with the opposition as the two Nigerians, along with Clifford Miranda, ran riot.
It could have been worse for Churchill had Chidi converted a penalty kick in the 34th minute.
The early pressure applied by Dempo bore fruit when Miranda made a pass to Chidi on the left flank and the Nigerian found compatriot Martins on the far post who headed home.
But the real problem came three minutes later, when Dempo's Jerry Zirsanga laid a defence-splitting through ball for Martins to chase. Vinay Singh came out to clear the danger but was out of the penalty area when he fisted the ball.
The referee had no choice but to furnish a red card to the Churchill custodian.
Chidi squandered an opportunity to double the advantage when he was tripped inside the box by Vinu Josh. The resultant penalty was a casual attempt, which was saved by Thapa , who dived to his left.
But Dempo did not have to wait long for the goal.
An intended through ball hit Chidi in the back and Martins spread the play wide to Miranda on the left flank. The cross found Chidi, whose header went in off the upright.
The Dempo midfield was marshalled efficiently by Climax Lawrence while the defence, featuring stalwarts Mahesh Gawli and Samir Naik, did not give much joy to the opposition.
Churchill kept coming forward and Nigerian Odafe Onyeka Okolie created some chances in the second half but were not converted.
Dempo, which had more or less sealed their spot in the final four in the first 45 minutes itself, did not exert too much and played within themselves.
Coach Armando Colaco was satisfied with the overall performance of his team.
"We slowed down the pace after two goals but I am happy with the overall performance. We had worked on a strategy to deny Odafe space. The best feature of our game today was ball possession and width," he said, mentioning Gawli, John Dias, Zirsanga and Miranda for special praise.
Churchill coach Karim Bencharifa said, "We could not play our natural game and lacked rhythm as our players were repeatedly blocked and the referee did not do anything about it."
The Moroccan added that is team's marking left something to be desired.
"Dempo is a fantastic side with quality players and you cannot make such mistakes against them."
