Goa through to final

DUMKA, FEB. 2. Adding to the continuing failure of the strikers in the semifinals, South Zone champion Goa, took the tie-breaker route to defeat Manipur 4-3 in the second semifinal of the National under-21 football for the M.Dutta Roy Trophy here at Dumka Stadium on Wednesday.

The penalties were resorted to after 120 minutes of regulation and extra time failed to break the deadlock and the scoreline remain barren.

Goa will take on Bengal in the final on Friday.

In the tiebreaker, after Selwyn Fernandez had shot wide the first shot, Joseph Coelho, Danzil Coutinho, Menino Fernandez and Miguel Alfonso scored for Goa. For Manipur, K. Hirojit Singh, P. Dharam, substitute Ch. Ajit Singh found the target. S. Santa Singh and Nivin Rai shot wide.

Though the performance in the midfield has shown some hints of maturity, the finishing inside the penalty area has been poor for most teams. The evident sloppiness in the attack, which had been the feature in the first semifinal yesterday, appeared to grip the two sides in today's match too. And the match remained a tiresome essay of misses.

Manipur, propelled by an agile and skillful midfielders in Kh. Ruman Singh and S. Santa Singh, mounted relentless attacks forcing Goa to defend most of the time in the first session. Despite everything going right, the goal remained elusive as both the forwards Navin Rai and K. Hirojit Singh failed to finish.

Goa wrested the initiative in the second session but its finishings remained poor. Painting a sorry picture, Sebastian Mendes and Joseph Coelho, failed to translate the provisions relayed up by their hardworking midfield colleagues in Lazarus Fernandes and Menino Fernandes. The extra-time too was nothing different as the saga of misses frustrated any possibility of a result. The brightest chance which could have fetched the `golden goal' came Goa's way in the 22nd minute of extra-time but Manipur's goalkeeper spoiled Goa's party effecting a diving save to block substitute Wilton Gome's pile-driver. With 120 minutes of efforts yielding nothing, the tie-breaker had to be enforced.

- Our Sports Reporter

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