Kerala beats Haryana to enter quarters; A.P. draw from Gujarat

Narayanpur (Chhattisgarh) Kerala defeated Haryana 2-0 to enter the quarter-finals of the Swami Vivekananda U20 Men’s National Football Championship from Group D at the Ramakrishna Mission Ashram ground here on Tuesday. Later in the day, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat played out a 1-1 draw in another group match. Both the teams were already out of the match.

Scoring once in each half, Kerala confirmed their supremacy, finishing the group with a record of all wins and nine points from three matches. Kerala will now face Group B winners Delhi on Thursday for a place in the semi-finals.

Kerala, which dominated the match for most of the time, opened its account by scoring a goal in the 22nd minute. Midfielder Akhish Cyril took a curling corner from the right side which went into the box and P. Adil evaded his markers and fired it past Haryana goalkeeper Hitesh.

Another goal by Ajin A in the 80th minute certainly took the match out of Haryana’s grip. Kerala completed its group matches by scoring 11 goals. They managed only one win in a 3–1 win over Gujarat. Haryana finished with two wins and one loss. The match between Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat was inconclusive as both teams lost their first two matches in the group. Both goals came in the first half. Kavi Chauhan gave Gujarat the lead in the 28th minute, but Gujarat lost the lead within three minutes with a goal by Marappa Gowda Setu. There is no match on Wednesday. Kerala will face Delhi in the first quarter-final on Thursday.