Nagaland, Meghalaya make it to the last four joining Manipur, Tripura

Dimapur | November 8 : Nagaland and Meghalaya topped Group-B to fill the two remaining berths for the semi-final stage of the ongoing 1st North East Dr T Ao Football Tournament on Sunday, November 8 drawing to a close the group stages. Manipur and Tripura are already in the knock-out stage after they beat Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh respectively during their last Group-A games on Saturday.   
Playing the last leg of the round robin group play-offs Nagaland beat Assam quite comprehensively 3-0 today. The three goals were scored by Saku (No. 9), the highest scorer in the just concluded NSF Martyrs’ Trophy held at Kohima.
Dr. T Ao Football tourney: Group stage draws to a closeBilled to have been a tight game by most people, Assam seemed lost in the field with Nagaland taking control of the game for a major portion of the little more than 90 minutes of play. Nagaland was to some extend helped by a massive turn out of home supporters, though raucous they were.
Saku who seemed to lose his cool in quite a number of occasions in the earlier matches, played a rather composed game. It paid off with him scoring all the three goals.
For Assam, forward Janap Dewri (No. 10) displayed sensational foot balling skills.
Playing a central role, especially in the wings his stamina and spectacular speed troubled the Nagaland defenders all throughout the game. He came dangerously close to the opponents area on many an occasion.
The game had only one yellow card being shown with Assam’s Hemanta Brahma (No. 5) being cautioned by the referee in the 65th minute.
With the gallery packed to the brim more crowds had to be let into the ground. It resulted in the audience coming riskily close to the playing area. Officials and the IRB had a field day trying to prevent emotional spectators from going berserk. A need for a full-fledged stadium of respectable standard was seriously noticed if Dimapur or the state as a whole is to hold such big events in future.
Earlier in the first match, Meghalaya subdued Sikkim winning by a 5-1 margin. Rajesh Gurung (No. 13) banged in two goals for Meghalaya while Marshal Kurkalong (No. 14), Allwyn Patweth (No. 09) and Embhami Laloo (No. 15) netted one goal apiece. Embhamani’s goal came two minutes into injury time.
Their spectacular show was however punctuated by a yellow card when Reginald Shadap (No. 4) was cautioned by the referee in the 72nd minute.
For Sikkim they finally opened their accounts in the tournament which was scored by Biden Rai (No. 09) in the 81st minute.
The two semi-final matches will take place on November 10. The first match will be between Manipur and Meghalaya. It will start at 11:00 am. Nagaland will take on Tripura second ground at 2:00 pm.

MorungExpress News