NFC for Santosh Trophy : Sanathoi at the double again as Manipur trounce MP 5-0, seal final round berth
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, October 15 2023: Red hot Manipur carried forward its terrific run at the 77th National Football Championship for Santosh Trophy Group C with a 5-0 thrashing of Madhya Pradesh at Bennett University Ground, Greater Noida today.

It was the fourth win on trot for former champions Manipur having beaten Tamil Nadu 1-0 in the opening match, and crushed Uttar Pradesh and Nagaland by identical 6-2 margins.

The result also meant that Manipur qualified for the final round (league competition of 10 teams clubbed into two groups) with a Group stage match left to play against Jharkhand.

Phijam Sanathoi Meetei who had scored doubles in Manipur's last two comprehensive wins against Uttar Pradesh and Nagaland, was a complete performer yet again and struck twice in Manipur's 5-0 win against Madhya Pradesh today to amass 6 goals in the group stage campaign.

Manipur kicked off the campaign on a bright note and went ahead after 19 minutes with Phijam Sanathoi finding the target.

Wangkheimayum Sadananda then doubled the advantage one minute before the break.

Sanathoi was at it again to give Manipur a comfortable 3-0 lead after 52nd minutes and Samson further extended the lead to 4-0 with a clinical finish five minutes later to leave Madhya Pradesh in tatters.

The scoring spree continued with Ngangbam Pacha netting the fifth and the decisive goal in the 74th minute.

With Madhya Pradesh failing to convert any of their chances, Manipur wrapped up the game 5-0 .

Manipur will play Jharkhand in the final Group C match on October 17 .

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