Narainpur (Chhattisgarh), May 23 (IANS) Mizoram claimed victory in a roller-coaster of a Swami Vivekananda Men’s U20 National Football Championship quarterfinal, defeating Punjab in a penalty shootout after the latter came back to level the score from being two goals down. The northeastern side eventually won the shootout 4-2 as the match ended 2-2 after extra time.
It was a game of two different halves, followed by a goalless half-hour of extra time. Mizoram were masters of the first half, Michael Lalbiaksanga (10’) and PC Pazawna (23’ p) putting them in a comfortable position. Punjab, however, roared back after the change of ends, Akashdeep Singh (69’) and Arshvir Singh (80’ p) levelling things up to send the match into extra time.
Contrary to the match, Punjab found themselves with the initial advantage, after Mizoram’s first penalty by PC Pazawna was saved by goalkeeper Jaskaran Dub. However, the rest of the Mizoram players – Ngurthanmawia, F Malsawmtluanga, Lalremtluanga L and Freddy Lalruatkima – entrusted with taking the penalties and did their part in scoring.
Punjab, who scored their first two penalties through Akashdeep Singh and Arshvir Singh, saw their challenge for a last-four spot fade away after Karan Kumar Sharma sent his spot-kick over the cross-bar while captain Harmandeep Singh’s penalty was saved by Joel B Lalramchhana, Mizoram’s goalkeeper and captain.
Earlier in the first half, Mizoram got off to a cracking start after Lalbiaksanga gave them the lead in the 10th minute. Standing over a free-kick from the edge of the penalty box, near the right flank, Lalbiaksanga went for glory and found the top corner, to put his side in the lead.
Things looked murkier for Punjab when Mohd Sahil was adjudged to have brought Ngurthanmawia down inside the box, and a penalty was awarded to Mizoram, on the Pazawna scored comfortably to double his side’s lead.
With the change of ends came the turn of the tables. Punjab began to crowd the Mizoram box with bodies in their attempts to connect with crosses from the wings. That also opened up spaces for Mizoram to exploit on the counter.
It was, however, a counter-attack from Punjab that set their come-back in motion. Substitute Gurmeet Singh and captain Harmandeep Singh combined to intercept the ball in the Mizoram half, after it was hooved up field by keeper Jaskaran. They eventually worked the ball out wide, where an Arshvir cut-back set Akashdeep to halve the deficit.
With a little over 10 minutes of regulation time left, a penalty was awarded to Punjab for a handball by Mizoram inside their own box. Arshvir, who had set up the first goal, stepped up to the spot and turned scorer to draw level.
After a goalless extra time, Mizoram finally held their nerve to win 4-2 in the penalty shootout. They will face Meghalaya in the semi-final on Sunday at 3:30 pm IST. Meanwhile, defending champions Delhi take on Sports Authority of India in the first match of the day at 7:30 am IST. Both matches will be played at the Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama Ground and will be streamed live on the Indian Football YouTube channel.
–IANS
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