Narainpur (Chhattisgarh)[India], May 20 : Karnataka reached the final of the inaugural Swami Vivekananda U20 Men's National Football Championship, defeating Manipur by a solitary goal at the Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama Ground on Monday.
The all-important goal came in the 14th minute of the match from a penalty, scored by Saikhom Borish Singh. Karnataka now await the winners of the other semi-final between Mizoram and Delhi, to be played later in the day. The final will be played on Wednesday.
The well-contested semi-final was watched by a good number of spectators, which included schoolchildren. Dronacharya awardee coach Mr. Bimal Ghosh and former India player Alvito D'Cunha were among the people who watched the proceedings from the stands.
Karnataka took the lead in the 14th minute when the referee, Rabin Biswas, pulled up a Manipur defender for a foul inside the box. Lanky Borish Singh gave goalkeeper Paonam Charansingh little chance to guess the possible direction of the ball as his confident right footer crashed against the net.
Borish is a prolific scorer and has so far netted six goals in the tournament. In the quarterfinals, too, when Karnataka defeated Bengal by one goal, Borish found the target for his team. On Monday, he was named the Player of the Match.
Manipur made some spirited moves once they fell into arrears. However, an unyielding Karnataka defence, backed by an intelligent midfield, kept their opponents at bay for the rest of the period. In the end, if Manipur rued their missed chances, then they were also lucky on a few occasions for not conceding any more goals.
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