Santosh Trophy : Manipur denied final round berth as Assam secure 2-1 win
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, February 16 2019: Manipur's dream of making it to the final round of the 73rd National football Championship for Santosh Trophy literally came to an end after they went down 1-2 to Assam in a North East Zone Qualifying Round clash (Group B) today in Aizawl.

Manipur's prospect to move into the final round was already narrowed down when Assam beat Arunachal Pradesh 2-1 in their last fixture and the only way to progress was to beat Assam today.

Assam with two wins emerged Group B winners in the zonal qualifiers and now will be looking forward for the final round along with Meghalaya which finished as Group A winners.

Both Manipur and Assam were on their task from the beginning as the winners would advance into the final round and it was Ginminthang Hangsing who handed Manipur the breakthrough three minutes from half-time.

But Assam fought back in the second half positively and grabbed the equaliser in the 63rd minute when Milan Basumatary beat the Manipuri custodian.

It was an end to end affair in the latter part of the match as both teams were searching for the lead but Assam were already in the driver's seat as even a draw was more than enough for them to qualify the final round.

Despite's Manipur diligent effort to find the winner, it were Assam which were on top of the world as Bishnu Bordoloi snatched an additional time goal (90+3) to finish the game 2-1 .

Comment