Santosh Trophy semifinal: West Bengal looks to surprise defending champion Services; Kerala faces Manipur
Santosh Trophy semifinal: West Bengal looks to surprise defending champion Services; Kerala faces Manipur
Thirty-two-time champion, West Bengal will take on defending champion Services, in the first semifinal, followed by the match between Kerala and Manipur in the other last-four encounter of the Santosh Trophy National Football Championship at GMC Balayogi Stadium here on Sunday.
Services and Bengal have faced each other 32 times; Bengal has won 21 times while Services has triumphed six times. Interestingly, the two also clashed in the final twice, with Services winning its first title in 1960 and Bengal exacting revenge nine years later.
Bengal’s two strikers, Robi Hansda (nine goals) and Narohari Shrestha (six goals) have been prolific scorers, helping their side win five of the last six games and maintain a near-impeccable record in the final round.
But then, defending champion Services can throw all predictions topsy-turvy.
After a not-too-impressive group stage, it looked smooth and effective in the quarterfinal against a never-say-die Meghalaya. Its key players have been Rahul Ramakrishnan and Thingnam Bidhyasagar Singh, who can be good enough to upstage Bengal’s defence, which conceded only two goals in the final round.
In the other semifinal between Kerala and Manipur, the former hasn’t lost a match yet and the only time it shared points in the group stage was against Tamil Nadu. Kerala outplayed teams like Delhi and Odisha with its brilliant all-round display.
Striker Naseeb Rahman has been outstanding so far in this edition.
On the other hand, Manipur’s footballers have been impressive and it won’t be surprising if a few more names like Shunjanthan Ragui, Zahir Khan and others from this current side hit the bigger stage very soon.
Kerala won thrice and Manipur twice in the five head-to-head clashes between them.
Doordarshan will live-telecast the semifinals and the final while Shrachi’s application SSEN will live stream the last three matches of the tournament.
