Itanagar, 4 Mar: Six-time champions Services sailed into the semifinals of the Santosh Trophy with a comfortable 2-0 win over Railways at the Golden Jubilee Stadium here on Monday.
Forced to play second fiddle for most of the match against a rampaging Services, the Railwaymen were swept off their feet as early as in the ninth minute when a foul in the area allowed their opponents to take the lead through a penalty converted by Shafeel PP.
Another goal came almost at the stroke of halftime when a brilliant effort by Samir Mumru saw Services increase their lead.
That Services, who made the semi-finals in the last edition too, were the better team on the pitch was clear from the very beginning.
Services received a penalty after Railways’ Nitesh Kumar Yadav challenged midfielder Rahul Ramakrishnan.
Defender Shafeel, who stepped in to take the spot kick, had the goalkeeper Raja Barman beaten convincingly on the right, but the referee ordered the kick to be retaken as one of the Services players rushed inside the box even before the shot was taken.
Unperturbed, Shafeel slammed the ball in once again, this time on the left.
Services created trouble for the rival defenders from the left. The Railways defence looked harassed and managed to survive till the 45th minute. However, they had no answer to the goal scored by Samir Murmu, which was a spectacular effort. Latching on to the ball on the right, Murmu took an angular shot that entered the goal.