66th Santosh Trophy - Day 7: Maharashtra upset champions Bengal

The 66th edition of the National Football Championship for the Santosh Trophy on its seventh day today played matches in Group A and B of the Quarterfinal League in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar. Champions Bengal were beaten by Maharashtra, but in other matches the favourites Manipur, Goa and Kerala won.

Defending champions West Bengal were beaten 2-1 by Maharashtra in their opening quarterfinal league match at the Barabati Stadium, Cuttack. ONGC striker Kailash Patil opened the scoring for Maharashtra in the 20th minute, which was doubled by Linekar Machando in the 70th minute against the run of play. But West Bengal captain Tarif Ahmed pulled one back in the very next minute but Maharashtra managed to hold on until the end.

In another Group A match Kerala rode on an injury-time strike from Shibinlal to scrape past former champions Punjab 2-1. Punjab went into the lead in the 38th minute through a Rohit Kumar strike. But Kerala restored parity in the 73rd minute through Sajith T. before Shibinlal sealed the fate in the 93rd minute.

In a Group B quarterfinal league match at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhuwaneswar, Manipur beat Northeastern rivals Meghalaya 1-0. L. Chaothaiba Singh scored the match-winner in the 62nd minute.

In the groups other match Goa overcame minnows Uttar Pradesh 2-0 with Gabriel Fernandes and Agnelo Colaco scoring one apiece in the 54th and 61st minute respectively.


Day Seven Results

Group-A - Cuttack
18-May-2012: West Bengal 1-2 Maharashtra
[W: 71 Tarif Ahmed; M: 20 Kailash Patel, 70 Linekar Machando]
18-May-2012: Punjab 1-2 Kerala
[P: 38 Rohit Kumar; K: 73 Sajith T., 90+3 Shibinlal]

Group-B - Bhubaneswar
18-May-2012: Manipur 1-0 Meghalaya
[62 L. Chaothoiba Singh]
18-May-2012: Goa 2-0 Uttar Pradesh
[54 Gabriel Fernandes , 61 Agnelo Colaco]