- NARAINPUR (CHATTISGARH) — Punjab and Uttar Pradesh emerged
victorious in their respective matches against Manipur and Ladakh in the Group
C matches of the Swami Vivekananda Men’s U20 National Football Championship at
the Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama Ground on Tuesday.
-
- An early
goal gave Punjab the victory against Manipur, in the first match of the day, by
a 1-0 margin.
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- Punjab
captain Harmandeep Singh broke through down the left, entered the box with
pace, and dinked the ball over a sliding goalkeeper to put his side in the lead
in the 12th minute. Manipur piled the pressure on Punjab in the later stages of
the game, but the latter held on to the victory and three points.
-
- Punjab
remained third in Group C with three points from two matches. They are tied on
the same number of points with Sikkim, but the latter have played one game
less.
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-
- In the
second match of the day, Uttar Pradesh won a high-scoring game against Ladakh,
defeating the union territory 4-2. Uttar Pradesh led 2-1 at half-time.
-
- Pravesh
Kumar scored (8’, 44’, 56’) a hat-trick for Uttar Pradesh while Mohsin Khan
(48’) added the fourth. Akash Tirkey (40’) and Imran Ali (86’) were the two
scorers for Ladakh. Uttar Pradesh, with this win, climb to the top of Group C,
having garnered six points from their two matches so far.
-
- On Monday,
Maharashtra and Tripura began their campaign on the right foot with wins
against Himachal Pradesh and Jharkhand, respectively in their opening games of
Group D.
-
- While
Tripura defeated Jharkhand 1-0 in the first match, Maharashtra overcame
Himachal Pradesh 2-0. Maharashtra and Tripura occupy the respective first two
spots in the group while Jharkhand and Himachal are on negative goal
differences. Mizoram are yet to play in the five-team group.
