Tamil Nadu, Manipur enter Santosh Trophy final rounds with unbeaten records

Tamil Nadu beat Andhra Pradesh 8-0 in its final Group D match while Manipur bettered Tripura 2-0 in Group C.

REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE OF SANTOSH TROPHY (C). | Photo Credit: Shanker Chakravarty/The Hindu

Tamil Nadu and Manipur kept their perfect records and made the final rounds of the 78th National Football Championship for the Santosh Trophy on Tuesday.

In their concluding Group G match at the RDT Stadium here, Tamil Nadu dished out a strong second half display to defeat host Andhra Pradesh 8-0.

The home side, which lost all its matches in the group, gave a committed performance in the first half. Tamil Nadu found it difficult to break the rival defence and could only score its first goal during the add-on time of the first session through Lijo K.

But Andhra Pradesh couldn’t repeat its show in the next 45 minutes and Tamil Nadu pumped in seven more goals to make it a rout.

Lijo K added three to take his individual tally of goals to four in the match, followed by Nandha Kumar Ananthraj (2), Henry Joseph Immanuel and A Regan.

In the second match of the day, Karnataka thrashed Andaman and Nicobar 11-0, but it was of no help as the former champion finished with six points.

Nikhil Raj Murugesh (4), Ryan Wilfred S (2), Crispin Cleetus, Surya UK, Syed Ahmed, Karthik Govind Swamy and Andrew Gurung were the scorers for the winners.

Manipur sail through from Group D

In Agartala, Manipur expectedly made the cut for the final rounds with nine points from three matches in Group D. In its last group game at the Umakanta Mini Stadium, it beat host Tripura 2-0. Both goals came in the second half.

In the day’s first match, Mizoram defeated Sikkim 7-0 to finish with three points. F. Lallawmkima (2), Michael Lalbiaksanga, HK Lalhruaitluanga, Laltluangliana, Lalthankima and Lalthanpuia were the goalscorers.