72nd Santosh Trophy Manipur share spoils with Chandigarh
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, March 21 2018: After suffering a 0-3 defeat in the hands of West Bengal, Manipur finished their second Group A league match of the National Football Champion-ship for the Santosh Trophy 2017-18 with a 1-1 draw with Chandigarh at Rabindra Sarobar Stadium, Kolkata.

Manipur are now behind Bengal, Kerala and Chandigarh in Group A table after two matches.

Manipur took an early lead through a goal from Ngangbam Naocha in the 25th minute but Vivek Rana of Chandigarh cancelled it out in the 65th minute to share equal point.

Naocha who was lurking around the edge of the box deftly controlled a well measured pass set by Jerry Onesemas Pulamte and banged in pass the rivals' custodian to enter into the break with a 1-0 lead.

Both teams shared possession in the second half but Vivek Rana of Chandigarh found an opening in the 65th minute and cashed it with a powerful shot to lock the score at 1-1 .

Manipur tried hard to break the deadlock in the latter part of the match but could not bring much change as defence set up of Chandigarh fended it well till the last minute. Manipur will lock horns with Kerala on March 23 .

In a Group A league match played earlier at the Sailen Manna Sports Complex, Howrah, defending champions Bengal came back from a goal down to thrash Maharashtra 5-1 .

Leander Dharmai of Maharashtra opened the scoring early in the 8th minute but Bengal found their flow in the second half only.

Monotosh Chakladar (55th minute), skipper Jiten Murmu (62nd), Bidyashagar Singh (79th, 82nd) and Rajan Barman (89th) scored for Bengal and helped their team attain Group A pole position.

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