Santosh Trophy: Delhi draw with Goa to end third, face Manipur in quarters

Delhi ended their final league round of the Santosh Trophy with a goalless draw against Goa to end third in Group B and set up clash with Manipur in the quarterfinal on Thursday.

The final round saw Delhi win the first two matches, against Tamil Nadu and Odisha, but lose to Kerala and Meghalaya in the next two matches before drawing with Goa.

“On the whole, the performance was good. We are playing quarterfinals for the second successive year. Lost to Goa 2-1 last year but drew with them this year. They faced a must-win situation to qualify (but failed as they finished fifth behind Odisha). We told the kids not to let up in this game,” said Vikrant Sharma, the coach of the Delhi team.  

Sharma said that the loss to Kerala and Meghalaya wasn’t a surprising result.

“Their (Kerala and Meghalaya’s) football is much better. They play throughout the year. We have only Delhi Premier League. You get maturity only after playing a lot of matches. Our boys play only 22 matches, and only 5-6 of them are competitive. Have to play, go outside and then only you become mature.”

Sharma also pointed that the team performed only when they scored early goals.   

“Whenever we scored early goals, performed. In the games we didn’t, we were upset.”

Delhi, who finished with seven points from five games, play Manipur on Thursday from 7 PM. Manipur ended second behind West Bengal in Pool A with 11 points.

Among other quarterfinals, West Bengal (first Pool A) play Odisha (fourth Pool B), Meghalaya (second Pool B) play Services (third Pool A) and Kerala (first Pool B) play Jammu & Kashmir (fourth Pool A).

Tags : Santosh Trophy, Delhi, Delhi Soccer Association, Kerala, Manipur, Hyderabad, Meghalaya, Goa