New Delhi: Uttarakhand defeated Chandigarh by a solitary goal to earn a ticket into the final round of the Santosh Trophy to be played in Siliguri from later this month. Saurabh Rawat scored for the matchwinner in the 84th minute to ensure Uttarakhand top Group A of the North Zone Qualifiers at the Akshardham Games Village Ground on Monday(February 3).
Courtesy the victory, Uttarakhand finished on seven points and Haryana on five points. Host Delhi ended on four points while Chandigarh failed to open their account.
Rawat followed up a long-ball from Sher Singh Bora and calmly put it past Chandigarh Goalkeeper Mohit Raj Singh in the 84th minute.
Earlier, Chandigarh were on an attacking mode right from the kick-off. They could have even surged into an early lead in the 6th minute but Nitin Rawat managed a goalline save to deny Harminder Singh after the latter had gone past the Uttarakhand defence.
Uttarakhand regrouped fast and launched a series of attacks. In the process they earned three corners but all of them went abegging. Their ploy of testing the Chandigarh Goalkeeper Mohit Raj Singh from far did not pay dividends as the shots stayed off the target.
But Chandigarh were not to be suppressed. They came close in the 18th minute after Saurav Rautella found Harminder in the clear but an onrushing Uttarakhand Goalkeeper Virender Pandey averted the danger.
Uttarakhand’s first real chance came in the 22nd minute. Sher Singh Bora feinted past his marker on the left flank but even as Striker Alok Singh Kalakoti followed it up, an alert Mohit kept it at bay.
An acrobatic Mohit also came to his Team’s rescue in the 35th minute when he palmed away Manoj Singh Majila’s rasper.
Off the counter, Uttarakhand survived a scare when Pawandeep Singh’s placement from just outside the 18-yard box off Arhsdeep Singh’s cross went inches wide.
Immediately after resumption, Manoj cut inside the Chandigarh goal-area but his shot sailed over.
Chandigarh replied back in style. The very next minute, Pawandeep, who always spelt danger for Uttarakhand almost everytime he touched the ball set up Rajan Negi on the right. Negi, with all the time in the World, entered the box but his shot bounced off the post after it had Virender beaten hands down.
Both teams kept attacking relentlessly and the ball kept rotating from one box to the other. Uttarakhand could have slot it home in the 65th minute but Bora mistimed his shot after he had sneaked past Vivek Gulati.
Knowing that a victory would see them through to the Final round, Uttarakhand pressed hard. An intelligent Negi lobbed it over the rival defence as he tried to find Kalakoti but Gurpratap Singh in the Chandigarh defence recovered faster.
The very next minute, Negi could have sealed it for his Team but his shot from inside the rival box was off the mark. The fate stayed the same for Uttarakhand in the 75th minute -- another of Kalakoti’s shot going over.
The goal which seemed inevitable eventually came in the 84th minute. What seemed a harmless clearance sailed over the entire Chandigarh defence and Saurabh Rawat, following it up made no mistake to slot it into the net.
Celebrations followed, and deservingly.
Delhi, Haryana fail to qualify
New Delhi: Delhi and Haryana quashed each other’s hopes of a Final Round berth by playing out a 1-1 draw from which neither could profit in their Group A tie of the North Zone in the 68th Santosh Trophy here at the Ambedkar Stadium on Monday (February 3, 2014).
Abhishek Rawat put Delhi in front in the first half only to see his goal being cancelled out by Haryana central midfielder Vikram who converted from the spot four minutes into the hour mark.
The hosts had their goalkeeper to blame for his indecisiveness from a corner kick in the 63rd minute when he failed to first collect and then clear a tame floater and slapped the ball into the outstretched arms of stopper back Manish Tyagi.
Vikram converted from the spot in the 64th minute to equalise, meaning Delhi finished with four points and Haryana five points. Uttarkhand, courtesy their one-goal win against Chandigarh in the other game of the day, qualified from this Group with seven points from their quota of three matches.
It took the hosts two minutes from the half-hour mark to take the lead after both the outfits had spurned two gilt-edged chances in the first quarter. For Haryana, Mandeep Singh shot straight at the goalkeeper off a Khagender Kant cross while Delhi’s lone striker Ajay Bartwal failed to plant his header on a Vikas Rawat corner.
But it was left back Abhishek Rawat who put paid to his team’s wait for the elusive with an exquisite first time left-footed effort from 20 yards that curled into the top left corner of the net leaving the diving Haryana custodian with no chance.
Delhi could have been two goals up by halftime had Nathani not shot wide from right-back Jagdeep Singh’s put-through.
Playing a fluid 4-2-3-1 formation, Tarun Roy’s Delhi looked the more confident of the two in the first period with their counterparts more reliant on long balls which failed to breach the green shirts’ rearguard.
Change of ends saw Delhi reverting back to a 4-4-2 in order to protect the slender lead. But their ploy backfired after a sustained spell of pressure from Haryana saw Delhi’s Ayush Rai lose his cool under the bar.
Failing to collect the ball from a flag kick, the lanky keeper slapped the ball but could only find the outstretched arms of one of his own inside the dreaded area. The referee pointed towards the spot and Haryana’s Vikram sent Ayush the wrong way from six yards to level.