Host Goa scraped through to the semifinals with two late goals against 10-man Services in the 71st Santosh Trophy National football championship at GMC Bambolin here on Monday.
Trailing by Arjun Tudu’s goal in the eighth minute, Goa found the men for the occasion in Akeraj Martins and Cajetan Fernandez as it scored twice in space of seven minutes to seal a semifinal place.
The 2-1 win ensured that Goa finished second in Group ‘A’ with eight points behind Bengal. It will meet Kerala in the semifinals.
Services, which needed a win to qualify, started off on the right note when Tudu found the target. Thereafter, it was Goa which dominated. But it was a tale of missed chances for Goa with Laresh Mandekar and Aaren D’Silva missing sitters in front of the Services goal.
Services was overtly defensive in the second half but it suffered a blow when skipper Rary Raj was sent off for his second bookable offence in the 67th minute. Goa made full use of its numerical advantage to put pressure on the Services goal.
Just when it appeared it would be heartbreak for home supporters, Martins scored the breakthrough goal for Goa. After receiving a high ball from Peter Carvalho that eluded the Services defenders, Martins controlled it well to lob the ball over the onrushing goalkeeper in the 82nd minute.
Fernandez calmed the Goan nerves by snatching the match-winner in the 89th minute. The goal was result of good combination play between Glan Martins and Martins.
At Tilak Maidan, Bengal defeated Meghalaya 2-0 to become the group winner with 10 points. Meghalaya, which needed a win, paid price for defensive errors. Bengal went ahead in the eighth minute off a counter attack which came after a misdirected corner kick by Meghalaya was cleared out by the Bengal defence. The long ball came to Manavir Singh who put Shaikhom Ronald Singh through and the striker scored.
After the opening goal, Bengal withdrew deep into its half intending to preserve the lead.
Meghalaya moved the ball nicely along the flanks but could not penetrate the watertight Bengal defence and the raids fizzled out. At the same time, the Meghalaya defence was vulnerable to counter attacks and it was well exploited by Bengal. Had Manvir converted the three chances he got, Bengal would have taken a big lead at half-time.
The script was similar in the second half with Bengal defending in numbers. Manavir increased the lead in the 84th off another counter-attacking move which came from another failed Meghalaya raid on the Bengal goal. In the dying minutes, Meghalaya strikers Biryson Kharkunoor and Michaelson Kurbah wasted two gilt edged chances to cap an unfortunate day for their side.
On Tuesday, Kerala takes on Maharashtra while Railways plays Mizoram.
The result:
Goa 2 (Akeraj Martins 82, Cajetan Fernandez 89) bt Services 1 (Arjun Tudu 8).
Bengal 2 (Shaikom Ronald Singh 8, Manvir Singh 84) bt Meghalaya 0.
Standings (played, won, draw, lost, goals for, goals against, points): Group ‘A’: Bengal 4-3-1-0-4-0-10; Goa 4-2-2-0-5-3-8; Chandigarh 4-1-1-2-3-4-4; Meghalaya 4-1-0-3-4-6-3; Services 4-1-0-3-2-5-3.
