Santosh Trophy: Meghalaya to Face Karnataka in Summit Clash

Meghalaya and Karnataka on Wednesday surprised former champions Punjab and Services respectively to arrange a summit conflict between themselves in the Santosh Trophy nationwide soccer championships.

Meghalaya made a spirited fightback as they rallied from a aim deficit to beat eight-time champions Punjab 2-1 in the primary semifinals and enter their maiden ultimate.

Karnataka then beat Services, who’ve received 5 titles in the final 10 years, 3-1 in the second semifinals to enter their first ultimate in 37 years. The final time Karnataka have been in the ultimate was in 1975-76 after they had misplaced to Bengal.

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The ultimate between Meghalaya and Karnataka can be performed on Saturday, whereas the third-place play-off between Punjab and Services may even be staged earlier on the identical day.

Punjab have come into the semifinals with out shedding a match. They had topped their group in each the primary and second rounds.

The semifinals, the third-place play-off and the ultimate is being performed right here because the Santosh Trophy is being held on international shores for the primary time in its historical past.

Paramjit Singh had given Punjab lead in the sixteenth minute however Megahlaya restored parity in the thirty seventh minute by means of Figo Syndai when he coolly slotted house after Nikelson Bina had headed down on the face of the aim.

Meghalaya, enjoying in their first semifinals, managed giant elements of the match after the equaliser however couldn’t discover a aim until the fag finish of the match.

Sheen Stevenson Sohktung discovered the goal in the injury-added time (90+1) in the match performed in the near-empty King Fahd International Stadium.

Punjab, who’ve ignored a couple of gamers that had performed in the second spherical in Bhubaneswar, thus have to anticipate the title which they final received in 2007-08.

In the second semifinals, each Services and Karnataka have been on equal phrases earlier than a three-goal burst in the final 5 minutes of the primary half.

Services’ Bikash Thapa and Karnataka’s Abhishek Powar missed a aim every in the thirty third and thirty eighth minutes respectively. Thapa then put Services in the lead in the fortieth minute.

But two minutes later, Robin Yadav restored parity from a free-kick earlier than P Ankith gave Karnataka the lead in the primary minute of first-half damage time (45+1) as Karnataka went to the pause at 2-1 lead.

Karnataka took the match past Services’ attain when M Sunil Kumar struck in the 77th minute to make it 3-1.

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