Goa earns date with Bengal

By Our Sports Reporter

DULIAJAN, JUNE 15. Defending champion Goa made its second successive entry into the final, beating Karnataka 6-5 via tie- breaker, in the replayed second semifinal of the OIL 10th National under-21 football tournament for the Manindra Dutta Roy Trophy at the Nehru Maidan here on Friday.

The final will be a repeat of last year - Goa vs Bengal - and will come off on Saturday. Bengal had made the grade on Thursday, derailing Railways 4-3 in the sudden-death.

Luck seemed to desert Karnataka for the second straight time as the South Zone champion was eliminated through a shoot-out for the second consecutive time. It had lost to Bengal via penalties last year. Thus, the trend of tie-breakers to find qualifiers continued in the knock-out stage of the highest age- group meet in the country. Both the semifinals last year saw the teams - Goa and Bengal - progressing up through the penalty route.

On Thursday, Karnataka was held 1-1 by Goa through Ajay Diwadkar's injury-time goal. The match remained inconclusive as bad light stopped play 11 minutes into extra-time. And a rejuvenated Goa was very aggressive today.

Karnataka began with a flash, forward B.V. Pradeep having a chance off the very first move after the kick-off. But a goal didn't materialised as the striker sent the ball to the Goa custodian, Mafildo Coelho, in haste. Goa then took charge and strengthened its position with an early goal.

Santa Singh, the Manipur midfielder enrolled with Vasco SC, took the honour for scoring off Anil Fernandes' minus in the eighth minute. Goa, encouraged by the goal, tightened its grip on the proceedings. Even the second session saw the Karnataka forwards, especially Pradeep, fumbling at the Goa goalmouth as opportunities went unutilised.

Goa, too, had its moments of tentativeness in the second session as striker Alex Ambrose and substitute Eusebio D'Souza (replacing left-back Gift Raikhan in the 57th minute) shot wide with just an open goal in the 65th and 75th minutes, respectively,. The misses proved costly as the wafer-thin margin was neutralised soon, thereby extending the toil for the defending champion.

The problems compounded for Karnataka as its maverick right-back M. Pele Mohan received his second booking of the match and was sent off in the 71st minute. Despite being down to 10, Karnataka put up a great show of grit and determination to find the equaliser in the 78th minute. Forward Mahendramani, who substituted P. Jagadeesh Kumar in the 62nd minute, produced arguably the best shot of the tournament, bulging the Goa net with a pile-driver from 25 yards.

Karnataka hung on, packing the defence with more men and the tie- breaker was required as 120 minutes of regulation and extra-time kept the teams tied 1-1.

Mahendramani, the hero for his brilliant equaliser, turned out to be the villain as he missed the target with his first try in the tie-breaker. Though the remaining four attempts were successfully converted by teammates E. Shivamani, K. Gopal Krishna, V. Vinod Kumar and captain Rajendra Prasad, his miss proves decisive as Goa was successful on all five occasions.

Clifford Miranda, Anil Fernandes, Wilton Gomes, Casmiro Piexoto and Alex Ambrose were bang on target to win the contest for Goa.

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Section  : Sport
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