Assam, Manipur enter semifinals of Subroto Cup football

Manipur's Little Angels Paradise and Betkuchi High School from Guwahati entered the Junior Boys (Under-17) semifinals of the 56th Subroto Cup International Football Tournament at the Ambedkar Stadium here today.
The Manipur outfit won 2-1 in an evenly contested first quarterfinal while the Assam boys struggled to hold on to their lead against their Meghalaya rivals in the second quarterfinal to register 4-3 triumph.
They will now clash in the first semifinal, to be played on October 14.
The Shillong boys should blame themselves for letting the hook off their rivals after having led through Alamgir Sana's goal in the 19th minute. With pressure on the other side, they should have indulged in hot pursuit to outwit their rivals but wasted enough opportunities. Three minutes from half time, K N Rocky found the equaliser to go into the hut for a deserving break.

On resumption, the teams preferred to buy time in guarding their goals rather than switching themselves on a full attack mode. Yet, A K Loyamdanga made most of a chance that came his way in the 55th minute to slot in the winner. And that was good enough to see them through to the last-four stages.
The Assam boys played percentage football with maximum ball possession which ultimately reflected in their score-line. On the other hand, Mawsura RC Upper Primary School from Meghalaya were found wanting in certain aspects. Still, they put up a good fight, as all the northeastern teams do, to stay in the game for quite a long time.

Pranjal opened the account for the Guwahati outfit with a goal in the seventh minute and Kalpa Jyoti consolidated three minutes later with a powerful grounder. Pranjal added one more to his tally before Jovian Star scored in the 27th minute to reduce the margin.
After the break, Babul Bomiyan scored to make it 4-1 for Guwahati in the 40th minute. But within three minutes Wanbok scored and finally Banman Roy scored in the injury time for the Nongstoin squad.