Jorhat, Sep 18 Haryana and Assam made the final of the Sub Junior Boys’ National Football Championship Tier 2 with wins over Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan, respectively, on Wednesday.
In the semifinals played at Jorhat Stadium, while Haryana survived by the skin of their teeth to pip Himachal 2-1 in an extended battle of 120 minutes, hosts Assam made short work of Rajasthan winning 3-0.
In the Haryana versus Himachal Pradesh encounter, the former owe it striker Rajeev Kapoor, who struck twice to rescue his team. Himachal took the lead in the 45+2 minute through Harshit Jaswal and held it till the 90th minute before Kapoor restored parity off a penalty kick to take the matter to extra time.
With four minutes remaining of the 30 minutes of extra time, Kapoor once again emerged the hero for his team by netting the winner.
For Assam, who took an early grip over the match against Rajasthan, Tanmoy Boruah was the hero as his fine hat-trick was the highlight of the day. He put Assam in the lead in the 17th minute, followed with another two minutes later. Boruah completed his hat-trick two minutes into the second half off a penalty kick.
On the other hand, Manipur, and Goa completed penultimate rounds line-up in Sub Jr Boys’ NFC Tier 1. Manipur booked their spot in the semi-finals of the Sub Junior Boys’ National Football Championship Tier 1 when they finished their Group B campaign with an all-win record.
In Group D, Goa made the semi-finals on the strength of their 3-0 win over Bengal. Though both teams and Maharashtra finished on six points, Goa made the grade because of better goal difference among the three teams. After a goalless first half, midfielder Aryan Uday Lingudkar put his team ahead with 25-metre direct free kick that crashed against the Bengal net. Elsan D’Souza, who beat the goalkeeper with yet another direct shot from outside the box and Joseph Decosta were the other scorers.
With this, the semi-final line-up was completed. On Friday, Karnataka will take on Delhi and Manipur will play Goa.
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