Palmeiras romp into IFA Shield semis

Fancied Palmeiras produced an exciting display of samba soccer to crush Vietnam's Nam Dinh 6-1 and romp into the semi-finals of the 107th IFA Shield football tournament in Calcutta on Wednesday.

The Brazilian outfit will meet Bangladesh's Mukti Joddha in the last four stage on Friday. Mukti Joddha routed Tata Football Academy 3-0 in another quarter-final.

Palmeiras, who finished with a disappointing 1-1 draw against lowly Bhratri Sangha in their last quarter-final group league match, raised their game several notches on Wednesday to win comfortably.

While in-form upfronter Tom Hilton Moraira scored three goals to take his tournament tally to six, Chu Vippana, Cabe Antonio and Claudio Celio struck once each. Substitute Tran Huy Trung scored the consolation goal for the Vietnam side.

Using their height advantage to devastating effect, the Brazilians attacked relentlessly from the start, braving almost unplayable ground conditions at the rain-drenched Salt Lake stadium, and pulverized their opponents with delectable wing play and fast exchange of short passes.

In the other last-eight engagement at the Howrah stadium, Mukti Joddha went ahead a minute from half-time through Rakib Hossain, and consolidated their position through Ariful Kabir Farhad and Mijanur Rahman Don post the breather.