Cuttack: 'Mission hat-trick' for West Bengal suffered a jolt in their first match of the 66th National Football Championship at the Barabati Stadium on Friday (May 18) when the defending champions went down 1-2 to Maharashtra in a Group A quarter-final league clash.
Bengal had won the last two editions of the tournament in Kolkata and Guwahati.
Kailash Patil scored the first goal for Maharashtra in the 20th minute – a lead which Maharashtra maintained till the interval.
Changing over, Bengal went all out for the equaliser but were not successful. On the contrary, Linekar Machando doubled the score for Maharashtra in the 70th minute.
However, Bengal captain Tarif Ahmed pulled one back in the 71st minute but Maharashtra managed to hold fort for the last 19 minutes.
Kerala beat Punjab 2-1: In another Group A match, Kerala rode on an injury time strike from Shibim Lal to scrape past Punjab 2-1. Punjab went into the lead in the 38th minute when Rohit scored. But Kerala restored parity in the 73rd minute through Sajith before Shibim sealed the fate in the 93rd minute.
Manipur scrape past Meghalaya: In a Group B quarterfinal league match at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhuwaneshwar, Manipur beat Meghalaya 1-0. Striker Chathaiba Singh scored the match-winner in the 62ndminute.
Goa too strong for UP: In the other match, Goa blanked Uttar Pradesh 2-0. Gabriel Fernandes and Agnelo Colaco scored one apiece in the 54th and 61stminute respectively.