The Hindu : Sport / Football : Bengal, Goa in last four

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, May 31, 2004

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Sport - Football

Bengal, Goa in last four

By Our Sports Reporter

KOLKATA, MAY 30. Defending champion Bengal and West Zone topper Goa sailed into the semifinals by notching up big wins respectively in the concluding Group `B' quarterfinal league match of the 13th National under-21 football championship for the M. Dutta Roy Trophy being held at Jamalpur in Bihar's Munger district.

Bengal, topping the group with nine points form an all-win record, and Goa, as the runner-up with six points, thus joined the two best teams from Group `A', North Zone champion Punjab and host Bihar, in the last-four stage which will be played on Tuesday and Wednesday before the final on Friday. In the first semifinal, Goa will take on Punjab while Bengal meets Bihar on the next day.

The last day of the group league encounters saw both Bengal and Goa winning by big margins. Bengal beat Manipur 5-2 while Goa thrashed Orissa 7-0.

Bengal started aggressively against the North-East topper and led 3-0 in the first session as Rahim Nabi (27th and 37th minutes) struck twice and Sheikh Habib Ali (44th) accounted for one. Ali scored again (58th) following the change of ends before Sooraj Mondal completed the Bengal tally in injury-time. Manipur reduced the margin through Deshkumar Singh (72nd) and Kongreicham Duidang (87th).

Orissa's name will now come up for all the wrong reasons as the team made a record of sorts conceding seven goals without a reply for the third consecutive occasion. After losing by the same margin against Manipur and Bengal, the hat-trick of defeats was completed as Goa repeated the margin. For Goa Agnelo C. Barreto (35th & 43rd), Zico R. D'Souza (41st & 70th) and Lactoc Coiado (73rd & 87th) struck twice each after William Colaco had scored the opener in the third minute.

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