Meghalaya To Meet Karnataka In Santosh Trophy Title Clash

NEW DELHI: Meghalaya and Karnataka surprised former champions, Punjab and Services on Wednesday at the Santosh Trophy national football championships to set up a summit battle between themselves.

Meghalaya made an improbable comeback, defeating eight-time champion Punjab 2-1, and went on to their first-ever final.

Karnataka won 3-1 over Services in the second semifinal to advance to their first final in 37 years. Services had won five championships in the preceding ten years.

Bengal defeated Karnataka in the 1975–76 championship game, which was the last time the state played.

The final between Meghalaya and Karnataka will take place earlier the same day as the third-place play-off between Punjab and Services.

Punjab is into the semifinals without having lost a game. They had won both the opening and closing rounds.

Paramjit Singh gave Punjab the lead in the 16th minute, but Megahlaya matched the score in the 37th minute with a calmly shot goal from Figo Syndai after Nikelson Bina had headed down on the goal's face.

Meghalaya, which was playing in their first semifinal, had the majority of the match under control after the equalizer, even though they didn't score until the very end.

In the second semifinal, Services and Karnataka were deadlocked when a three-goal spurt in the final five seconds of the first half broke the tie.

Both Services' Bikash Thapa and Karnataka's Abhishek Powar missed goals in the 33rd and 38th minutes, respectively. Services took the lead in the 40th minute by Thapa.

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