Himachal Pradesh and Odisha secured their respective berths in the quarters of the second round of the ongoing Junior Girls' National Football Championships 2019-20 on Tuesday.
Odisha sealed their place with a thumping 13-0 win over Pondicherry, with Jyoti Kumari finding the net seven times. Manisha Naik chipped in with three goals while Subhasmita Das, Malati Munda and Salge Majhi added apiece respectively.
In the second game of Group E, Gujarat and Bihar played the first draw of the competition as the match ended 0-0 after a tense battle. As a result, Bihar moves to four points from their two games and will rely on the result between Gujarat and Telangana, who are on one and zero points respectively.
Himachal Pradesh moved into the quarterfinals with a 4-0 victory against host Maharashtra, who put up a tough fight throughout the game and could have taken the lead in the first half had they successfully converted a spot-kick, which was saved by Himachal's Manisha.
The second half was also a tense affair but the breakthrough came in the 79th minute for Himachal as substitute Aarti headed the ball home from a corner. The floodgates opened thereafter, with forward Manisha scoring a minute later and Kiran grabbing a brace.The stage is set for a cracking final round in Group H after Mizoram and Kerala picked up comfortable wins to set up a winner-takes-all clash on Thursday. Mizoram blanked Andhra Pradesh 7-0, with forward Lalrinmuani grabbing a hattrick, Gladys Zonunsangi scoring twice and Ruth Vanlalpeki and Lalnunsiami netting once.
Kerala picked up a 3-0 win over Punjab, thanks to goals from Nandana Krishnan, Malavika P and Arya V.