12th Shaheed Manoranjan Memorial Football : SU, YUFC script wins to complete semi-final line up
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, January 21 2022: The semi-final line up of the 12th Shaheed Manoranjan Memorial CRPF Football Tournament being organised by the 143 Bn CRPF at SAI Football Turf was completed today with Sagolband United (SU) and YUFC, Ukhrul making the cut.

In the third quarter final match of the tournament staged this morning from 10.30 am, SU edged out UKB, Churachandpur 5-3 on penalties after a 2-2 draw in the regulation time.

Though SU had the upper hand for most part of the game, UKB made a surprising comeback in the second half and pulled level to extend the game to kicks from penalty marks to decide the winners.

SU took a slender 1-0 first half lead with Premananda's strike in the 4th minute and were 2-0 ahead when Paokhongam found UKB net again four minutes past the hour mark.

12th Shaheed Manoranjan Memorial Football

The Churachandpur team who were off their mark for a major portion of the game, however managed to reduce the gap when Kamsanglian converted a fine chance in the 79th minute and kept their comeback hope alive.

SU almost went home 2-1 but Paolenal scored at the stroke of the 90 minute mark to pull level and made it anyone's game.

And as the two sides were unable to find the winner during the stoppage time, the winners were eventually decided via tiebreaker where in the Sagolband side emerged the luckier side as Seilenlal, Henry, Christopher, Basanta and Premananda all scored from the spot and only Lalminlan, Singson and Mangkholen were able to scored for the Churachandpur team.

SU will now meet KSC, Kangpokpi in the semi-final.

Later in the last quarter final match of the tourney, YUFC, Ukhrul got the better of ESU, Wangkhei 2-0 thanks to second half goals and set up a semi-final date with Classic FA.

With a semi-final berth in sight, both YUFC and ESU took off the game cautiously and entered into the break goalless despite some close calls.

The game, however, started tilting towards the Ukhrul side after the break as they upped the ante and strung a series of run with more intent.

Their efforts paid dividends soon with Ayat Chiphang converting a fine chance in the 52nd minute.

Stunned by the goal, ESU put in more effort but YUFC did well to thwart their moves till the dying minutes of the game.

Taking advantage of ESU's defensive lapse, YUFC scored another goal four minute into the stoppage time via Rungsing Muinao and put the game beyond ESU's reach.