Mizoram take on Railways in the summit showdown of the Santosh Trophy here on Sunday with the Northeastern state set to play in their maiden final of the National Football Championships.
Mizoram rode on both grit and luck to edge past Tamil Nadu 3-1 in extra time in the first semifinals while Railways edged past Maharashtra 4-2 on penalties in the second semifinals at the Kanchenjunga Stadium here.
Some shoddy goalkeeping by Tamil Nadu custodian A Arun Pradeep coupled with a spirited second half display helped Mizoram rallied to win the match.
Two-time finalists Tamil Nadu took the lead right at the stroke of halftime through A Reagan (45+1). But a rejuvenated Mizoram, aided by a goalkeeping gaffe, clawed back into the match courtesy a long range strike from substitute David Lalrinmuana (62nd minute) to take the match to extra time.
Two opportunistic strikes from Zico Zoremsanga (94th) and substitute F Lalrinpuia (119th) sealed the match in favour of Mizoram to the heartbreak of Tamil Nadu players.
Today's victory was the fifth for high-flying Mizoram in the final round of the competition and eight if the qualifying round matches are taken into consideration.
Tamil Nadu goalkeeper Pradeep was at fault during both the equaliser and the second goal of Mizoram. He failed to collect a harmless long range effort from 35 yards from substitute David Lalrinmuana. The ball bounced in front of the custodian, who misjudged the flight completely, and then rolled into the Tamil Nadu net.
He then mistimed his jump inside the six yard area in the extra time to hand Mizoram the lead.
