Tamil Nadu sail past Andaman & Nicobar 9-2 in Group B
Chhattisgarh: Karnataka sealed their spot in the quarter-finals from Group B with a 3-0 win over hosts Chhattisgarh in the Swami Vivekananda U-20 Men’s National Football Championship on Sunday.
With a perfect nine points from three matches, Karnataka have secured the top spot with one game in hand. Gujarat, who are second with six points from the same number of matches, cannot overtake the southern side, as they had lost to Karnataka, earlier in the tournament. Even if they win their remaining match against Chhattisgarh, and Karnataka lose theirs against Andaman & Nicobar, the latter would be ahead by dint of a better head-to-head record.
Karnataka’s Saikhom Singh gave them the lead in the 9th minute while he secured his brace later in the 47th minute. Abhiram scored in the 67th minute, when he was played through behind the defence, and slipped the ball between the Chhattisgarh goalkeeper’s legs to make it three. This game also signalled the end hosts Chhattisgarh’s fight for a quarter-final spot.
In the other match of the day, Tamil Nadu defeated Andaman & Nicobar 9-2.
Despite the lop-sided scoreline, it was Andaman & Nicobar who scored first when they were gifted an own goal in the 28th minute, Ajay Prabhakar A’s name making it to the scoresheet for the wrong reasons. Rooney Rose A equalised for Tamil Nadu four minutes later, but Anas Khan Pathan soon put Andaman & Nicobar back in the lead.
That did not last long, though, as Tamil Nadu soon seized control of the game. Goals from Jershan Fernandez Justin, Dilliraj V, Santhosh S, and Leonardo Christy L put Tamil Nadu in a very comfortable position. Then came Aswanth S with an eight-minute hat-trick, before Adam J L David netted the ninth in injury time.
