77th National Football Championship for Santosh Trophy : Manipur complete group stage sweep with 3-0 thrashing of Jharkhand
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, October 17 2023:
Manipur completed group (C) stage competition of the 77th National Football Championship for Santosh Trophy with a 3-0 thrashing of Jharkhand at Shaheed Vijay Singh Pathik Stadium, Greater Noida.
Having registered four resounding back to back wins in the previous encounters, Manipur started positively and led to a 2-0 first half lead before securing the 3-0 victory with another late goal courtesy left winger Samson who set up the first goal.
Manipur and Jharkhand were neck and neck in the earlier proceedings exchanging a series of run but Manipur, having squandered few chances broke the deadlock with Wangkheimayum Sadananda converting a fine cross into the box from the left winger Samson after 22 minutes of the play.
Jharkhand fought back for a while after the goal but Manipuri defenders did well to tackle the situation and ensured the team gradually gain full control of the play towards the end of first half.
After some more close calls, Manipur who have already booked their final round birth, managed to double the lead in the 37th minute when Ngangbam Pacha unleashed an unexpected rocket from distance to stun the Jharkhand custodian Sudarshan Kumar and help Manipur enter into the break with a 2-0 lead.
It was to and fro affair in the second half with Jharkhand toiling more harder to cut the deficit.
Goal remained elusive for almost the half despite chances on both the ends until Samson exploited made the most of a goal mouth melee to make it 3-0 three minutes from time.
It was a through pass off Wankheimayum Sadananda from near the halfway line that substitute Phijam Sanathoi took it close to shoot but got deflected from the keeper to set it up for Pebam Renedy who came in for Somishon Shirak in the 79th minute.
Renedy's shot too got block but clumsy defending between defenders Ghanshyam and Ranglal Murmu had to see the ball go to Samson who was too lurking around tap in with ease.
In other Group C matches, Uttar Pradesh beat Madhya Pradesh 4-1 to finish group runners up and qualify for final round as Tamil Nadu played out a 1-1 draw with Nagaland.