Santosh Trophy: Delhi face Chattisgarh in prequarters

KOLKATA - Delhi maintained a clean slate to romp into the prequarter finals with a 3-1 win over Madhya Pradesh in the 64th Santosh Trophy inter-state football competition Sunday.

The cluster V game at the Howrah Stadium saw Delhi open up an early lead through David Ngaispe but their rivals managed to draw level. However, Delhi pressed hard after the breather and struck twice to finish their cluster engagements with nine points from three matches.

They will now face Chhattisgarh, who stormed past Haryana 5-1 at Khardah stadium to top cluster VI.

For Madhya Pradesh, the high point came in the 17th minute when Javed Manihar made the scoreline 1-1 after Delhi went ahead as early as the fourth minute.

Delhi’s in-form medio Bhuvan Joshi broke the deadlock in the 55th minute with a firm shot before Vikash Rawat slotted home an insurance goal late in the game.

Chhattisgarh led 1-0 at the halfway mark, courtesy Wasim Raza, as Haryana put up some initial resistance.

However, Chhattisgarh upped the ante in the second session, as Kulwant Singh made the scoreline 2-0.

Yugal Kishore soon got the third goal before Daniela Paupu struck twice to help his team open up a 5-0 gulf.

Raghav Khurana scored a consolation goal for Haryana.

The other cluster V game at the Mohun Bagan ground saw Uttar Pradesh spank Arunachal Pradesh 7-2. However, the winners trailed Delhi by three points to take the second spot from the cluster and bowed out of the tournament.