Cuttack: Anju Tamang scored the all important goal in the second half to help Odisha scrape past West Bengal 1-0 in the quarterfinals and book their last four spot in the Senior Women’s National Football Championships at the Bidanasi Ground here Thursday.
It was a neck-to-neck encounter as both the teams fought hard in the first half in search of an opening goal. However, after a barren first 45 minutes Anju finally broke the deadlock as she found the back of the net in the 77th minute to break her opposition’s hearts.
In the other quarterfinal matches, Railway Sports Promotion Board (RSPB) rode on strikes from Yumnam Kamala Devi (22nd, 35th), Kshetrimayum Ngoubi Devi (69th), and Manpreet Kaur (90th) to thrash Haryana 4-0.
Manipur defeated Punjab 4-1. Nongmaithem Ratanbala Devi (70th), NG Bala Devi (42nd) and Dangmei Grace (third, 22nd) scored for Manipur while the lone goal for Punjab was scored by S Tejibala Devi (61st).
Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu converted three spotkicks to Delhi’s one in the penalty shoot-outs to book a semifinal place. Both the teams ended 1-1 in regulation time.
Both the semifinal games will be played Saturday.
Triple crown
Sohini Sanjay Mohanty of Odisha produced a brilliant display winning U-12 girls’, U-14 girls’ (both singles) and U-14 girls’ doubles titles of the Championship Series tennis tournament at Karnal in Haryana, Thursday.
In the U-12 finals Sohini defeated second seed Divya Ungrish from Delhi 6-2, 6-3. Sohini emerged 6-0, 6-1 victorious once again against Divya in the U-14 finals before pairing up with Delhi girl to beat Saijaini and Marlin Sweetie 6-0, 5-7, 10-5.
Tame draw
Radha Gobinda Club played out a tame 1-1 draw against Mangala Club in a match of the FAO 1st Division football league here at the Barabati Stadium, Thursday.
Radha Gobinda took the lead through Naren Suna on 22 minutes while Sagar Rout scored the equaliser for Mangala Club in the 61st minute.
