Hosts Madhya Pradesh storm into Sub-Jr Girls' NFC Tier 2 final

Neemuch, Sep 14 (IANS) Hosts Madhya Pradesh powered their way into the Sub-Junior Girls' National Football Championship 2024-25 Tier 2 final after beating Andhra Pradesh 5-1 in the first semi-final in Neemuch on Saturday. 

Ambika Dhurwey (13') and Neelam Pusam (15') gave Madhya Pradesh the perfect start before Gundigi Jyoshnavi (23') reduced the deficit for Andhra Pradesh. But Manvi (31') restored the two-goal advantage for the hosts soon.

In the second half, Manvi (68') and Neelam (78') added two more to complete the rout for Madhya Pradesh and qualify for the final.

Meanwhile Himachal Pradesh reached the semi-final of the Sub-Junior Boys' National Football Championship Tier 2 after beating Andhra Pradesh 4-1 in Jorhat on Saturday.

After the withdrawal of Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh, Group D was left with only Himachal Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. The two teams faced each other twice. Himachal Pradesh won the first meeting 11-0 on Thursday. Saturday saw a closer affair, where Andhra Pradesh took a surprise lead via Damodar Gutam (13'). But Himachal Pradesh staged a comeback as Devan Rajpoot (35'), Harshit Jaswal (51', 87') and Partivan Bhalgaria (66') found the net.

Meanwhile, Haryana put one foot in the semi-finals after a 5-0 drubbing of Tripura. The northerners are now top of the table with six point and only require a point against Chandigarh on Monday to qualify.

Lakshit Kamboj (13') opened the scoring for Haryana before Rajveer Kapoor (18', 22', 35') scored a hat-trick. Substitute Chirag Goswami (77') scored the fifth and final goal.

Chandigarh edged past Andaman & Nicobar 4-3 in a high-scoring thriller. Chandigarh scored twice in the opening 10 minutes through Divyug Sandhu (2') and Arush Verma (10'). Arius Dadiburjor halved the deficit in the 14th minute before Arush scored again in the 28th. However, Andaman & Nicobar struck twice in three minutes to make it 3-3 at half-time, with Ranveer Tigga (39') and Dadiburjor (42') finding the net. Chandigarh eventually scored the winning goal thanks to Viraaj Singh Sidhu (61').

--IANS

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