A first-half strike from Kartik Hantal helped Odisha claim a narrow 1-0 win against Manipur in the 75th National Football Championship for the Santosh Trophy at the Manjeri Payyanaad Stadium here on Tuesday.
Odisha were the better team on the night and their tenacious display meant Manipur succumbed to their first loss of the competition. Both teams came into the contest full of confidence. Manipur had thrashed defending champions Services 3-0 while Odisha had come back from 1-3 down to draw their previous encounter against Karnataka. Both coaches had mentioned prior to the game how the boys were up for the game.
It was Odisha who started the brighter of the two as they tried to play the lofted through ball behind the Manipur defence. With Manipur playing a high-line, goalkeeper MD Abujar had to be alert on a number of occasions as he had to play the role of a sweeper keeper.
The Odisha midfielders won the battle in the centre of the park as they time and again dispossessed the Manipur players. The first real opportunity fell to Odisha as a lofted through ball had to be cleared by the Abujar but the ball fell to Kartik Hantal, who could not wrap his left foot around the ball with the gaping goal at his mercy. The ball ultimately trickled out of play.
Manipur had to resort to long rangers as the players seemed to run out of ideas once they reached the edge of the box. Their best chance came from a free kick from the right. Ningthoujam Momocha Singh’s free-kick was cleared by Odisha goalkeeper Chinmaya Sekhar Behera but after a melee inside the box, it fell to Somishon Shirak who put the ball into the back of the net but was adjudged to be offside. Odisha’s tenaciousness finally bore fruit in the 37th minute. Kartik Hantal dispossessed Manipur centre-back Naoroibam Romen Singh and ran from the centre circle towards goal and calmly slotted past Abujar. It was a well-deserved lead with Hantal making up for his earlier miss.
Manipur coach Gift Raikhan must have had strong words to tell his players during the half-time team talk and the players seemed much more up for it as the second half commenced.