Swami Vivekananda Men’s U-20 NFC: UP go top of Group D, Punjab beat Manipur

Narainpur (Chhattisgarh), May 13 Punjab and Uttar Pradesh emerged victorious in their respective matches against Manipur and Ladakh in the Group C matches of the Swami Vivekananda Men’s U20 National Football Championship at the Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama Ground on Tuesday.

An early goal gave Punjab the victory against Manipur, in the first match of the day, by a 1-0 margin.

Punjab captain Harmandeep Singh broke through down the left, entered the box with pace, and dinked the ball over a sliding goalkeeper to put his side in the lead in the 12th minute. Manipur piled the pressure on Punjab in the later stages of the game, but the latter held on to the victory and three points.

Punjab remained third in Group C with three points from two matches. They are tied on the same number of points with Sikkim, but the latter have played one game less.

In the second match of the day, Uttar Pradesh won a high-scoring game against Ladakh, defeating the union territory 4-2. Uttar Pradesh led 2-1 at half-time.

Pravesh Kumar scored (8’, 44’, 56’) a hat-trick for Uttar Pradesh while Mohsin Khan (48’) added the fourth. Akash Tirkey (40’) and Imran Ali (86’) were the two scorers for Ladakh. Uttar Pradesh, with this win, climb to the top of Group C, having garnered six points from their two matches so far.

On Monday, Maharashtra and Tripura began their campaign on the right foot with wins against Himachal Pradesh and Jharkhand, respectively in their opening games of Group D.

While Tripura defeated Jharkhand 1-0 in the first match, Maharashtra overcame Himachal Pradesh 2-0. Maharashtra and Tripura occupy the respective first two spots in the group while Jharkhand and Himachal are on negative goal differences. Mizoram are yet to play in the five-team group.

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