SHILLONG, MAR 26: Host Meghalaya won the third place in the play off of Dr T Ao Memorial Football tournament played on Tuesday after defeating Arunachal Pradesh by a convincing margin of 6-2 at JN Stadium.
Thin home crowd notwithstanding, Meghalaya started off the match impressively by pushing Arunachal Pradesh on the back foot right from the start. The home team took an early lead five minutes into the game through a well crafted free-kick taken by skipper Niwan-O-Gatphoh just few yards away from the box. The ball sailed over the Arunachal Pradesh custodian Tadu Taka and into the net.
After the initial lead, Meghalaya continued to push the ball forward and kept the Arunachal Pradesh defenders on their toes. The home team got a great opportunity to increase the lead after Lansning Kharumnuid made a beautiful through ball towards Gatphoh in the 22nd minute, but the latter powerful strike saw the ball missed the goal by a whisker.
However Arunachal Pradesh finally got the all important equalising goal in the 26th minute after a long ball pass to Tadar Tokum who made no mistake to level the scores 1-1.
But in the 33 minutes Meghalaya again went into the lead after Lansning Kharumnuid made no mistake to put the ball into the net after a slight fumble from the Arunachal Pradesh goalkeeper.
In the dying minutes of the first half, the visiting team again came up with an equalise after Nyamar Loyi took a gem of a free kick on the left flank which hit the crossbar and bounced to a team mate Hage Kemo, who put the ball in. The first half ended with both team locked at 2-2.
The two contesting teams did not settle for the four goals scored in the first half, as Kharumnuid scored his second goal in the 50th minute giving Meghalaya 3-2 lead.
As Arunachal Pradesh had twice come back with equaliser, Meghalaya push further and increase the lead by 4-2 up in the 62nd minute through a desperate bicycle kick from Bickyson Kharkongor.
Gatphoh also scored his second goal of the match after he curled the ball out of the reach of the goalkeeper to give Meghalaya a 5-2 lead in the 70th minute.
In the 79 minutes, Teiborlang Siangshai scored a blinder after his powerful strike from 30 yards saw the ball went passed the Arunachali goalkeeper and sailed into the net to finish the game at 6-2.
In the final match to be played on Wednesday, defending champion Mizoram would take on Manipur on Wednesday at 5 pm.- By Our Reporter
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