Santosh trophyCHENNAI: On a day of two upsets, 2002 champions ousted former champions Railways while Kerala met with their nemesis in Maharashtra again as the latter edged them out by a solitary goal (1-0) in the knock out pre-quarter finals, to enter the quarterfinal league phase of the 63rd national football championship for Santosh trophy.
In the other two pre-quarter final outings, four times champions Goa remained in contention making it to the last eight stage with a dominating 3-0 win over Mizoram whose defence spearheaded by Reuben Zosangpuia, back after a suspension from the last Cluster league match two'days ago , failed to stop the silken strikes of the Goans.
The match was played in Tiruchirapalli.
Host Tamil Nadu, heading the goals table with 25 at the end of the preliminary league, continued their high scoring spree, netting five more without reply in their big 5-0 win against Haryana at the Nehru stadium in Chennai.
The Tamil Nadu forwards sparkled again upfront. Leading 2-0 at half time, the home team scored through captain Kulothungan (18th), Muthu (43rd, 78th) and Riju, the leading individual scorer so far (48th, 87th) to make it to the quarter final league in style.
The Railway fire power headed Mahtab Hussain, who plays for East Bengal in I-league, appeared to be nullified today. Manipur pressed hard to score through Subhash Singh in the 19th minute and increased the lead through their star right winger Reaisanmi Vasum of Churchill Brothers in I league, who accounted for a brace. He found the net in the 39th and 72nd minutes even as the Railways continued to struggle. The three times champions, however, managed to score in the 81st minute when Nalender Chakravorthy converted a penalty kick.
For Goa, who were also seven times runners ups, their star striker Marcus Mascarenhas was in form again. After the Goans, managing to keep the rival strikers at bay, forced the lead in the 44th minute through Joaquim Abranches, Mascarenhas struck a brace in the second session- 58th and 63rd minutes.
The Kerala coach K P Sethumadhavan was a crestfallen man.
Maharashtra though struggling to score freely, managed one goal through their star striker Kuttimani Sampathkumar, ultimately in the 83rd minute. Kerala, it may be recalled, had lost twice to Maharashtra in the final and once in the semifinals in this competition in the past.
The Kerala-Maharashtra duel was fought on equal terms till half time. The defence of both the teams stood up stoically. But Maharashtra succeeded in finding the net when Sampathkumar came up with a superb header, much to the disappointment of numerous fans from Kerala who had turned up to see their team into the quarters. The disappointed Kerala fans protested against the selection committee of their state Association. Police personnel chased them away to prevent any untoward incident.
In the quarter final league to be played here from June 2 in two Groups, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu will join reigning champions Punjab and former champions Bengal in Group A while Goa and Manipur join Services and Karnataka in Group B.
Punjab, Bengal, Services and Karnataka, the semi finalists last year, had been entered directly into the quartef final league.