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YUPIA, 2 Mar:<\/strong> Mizoram confirmed their spot in the quarterfinals of the Santosh Trophy with a comprehensive 4-0 win against Railways at the Golden Jubilee Stadium here on Saturday.<\/p>\n While the four teams to make it to the knockout stages from Group A were already confirmed on Friday, three of the Group B sides – Manipur, Delhi, and Railways – started on Saturday, having already qualified.<\/p>\n Mizoram, Maharashtra, and Karnataka were fighting it out for one quarterfinal spot, and it was advantage Mizoram.<\/p>\n Services will face Railways in the first quarterfinal on 4 March, followed by the second quarterfinal between Goa and Delhi on the same day. On 5 March, Manipur will take on Assam, while Mizoram will play Kerala.<\/p>\n The side from the northeastern reaches of India had a simple equation in front of them. If they beat Railways, they would book their quarterfinal spot; anything else, and they would have to depend on other results.<\/p>\n Lalthankima (17th min) set the tone for Mizoram early on, as he ran on to a through ball behind the Railways defence and slotted it past the keeper.<\/p>\n Mizoram were not content with just a goal lead, and constantly kept looking for more opportunities to score.<\/p>\n However, Railways came back hard in the second half, looking for the equaliser. They had already qualified, but a few points in this game would improve their standing in the group, which could give them a more favourable tie in the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n However, it was Railways’ willingness to commit more men forward that was finally their undoing.<\/p>\n Mizoram substitute Vanlalbiaa Chhangte doubled the lead in the 81st minute, a similar strike to that of Lalthankima.<\/p>\n Abhishek Aich’s 87th-minute own goal, which came as a result of the Railways defender attempting to clear a Malsawmtluanga cross, only made matters worse, before Mizoram substitute Malsawmfela scored a fourth from a move that he himself had initiated outside the box.<\/p>\n In the second match of the day, both Manipur and Delhi were assured of a quarterfinal spot before their match kicked off, but the top spot in the group was still up for grabs.<\/p>\n A Delhi win would sent them to the top, while a draw would be enough for Manipur. However, Manipur prevailed 2-1 at the Golden Jubilee Stadium to top the group.<\/p>\n Manipur captain Philam Sanathoi Meetei drew first blood in the seventh minute, before Rishabh Dobriyal (41′) equalised for Delhi a little ahead of half time.<\/p>\n Leimajam Sangkar Singh (66′) put the top spot in the group beyond all doubts, when he slotted home a cut-back from Samson, to hand his side the lead.<\/p>\n Quarterfinals lineup:<\/p>\n 4 March: Services vs Railways, 2:30 pm;<\/p>\n Goa vs Delhi, 7 pm.<\/p>\n 5 March: Manipur vs Assam, 2:30 pm; Mizoram vs Kerala, 7 pm. (PTI)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" YUPIA, 2 Mar: Mizoram confirmed their spot in the quarterfinals of the Santosh Trophy with a comprehensive 4-0 win against Railways at the Golden Jubilee Stadium here on Saturday. While the four teams to make it to the knockout stages from Group A were already confirmed on Friday, three of the Group B sides – […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-236126","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-state-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236126\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}