Santosh Trophy

After drawing their first game with Tamil Nadu, the brave Bengalis literally threw away a golden opportunity of getting closer to a berth in the semi-finals. They played Manipur today. Lalam Puia of Chirag United, put one past the Manipur keeper in the 10th minute itself to take his personal tally of the tournament to 2 goals in 2 games. Since then Bengal dominated the proceedings and had most of the possession. However, they messed up numerous chances to score in the first half with Lalam Puia himself guilty of a couple of missed opportunities. Credit must be given to the Manipur keeper Basant Singh who kept his state in the game under pressure.

The second half, however, was dissapointing. It saw Bengal sitting deep defending their lead, while a belligerent Manipur kept pushing forward. Bengal were duly punished for their negative play with Manipur equalising in the 59th minute. After that the game turned lacklustre with both sides playing extremely mediocre football and being unable to capitalise on the other's mistakes.
Bengal did have a few good chances in the end which failed thanks to some great goalkeeping and poor luck. The game ended 1-1.

In the other game of the league Punjab beat Tamil Nadu 1-0. Punjab reportedly scored of a penalty. Details here.

Now each team has played 2 games with only one to go. Manipur are sitting on top of the table with 4 points, Punjab are second with 3 points, Bengal in third place with 2 points and Tamil Nadu last with 1. To go through to the semi-finals Bengal must win their final league game against Punjab and pray that Tamil Nadu somehow overcome the fighting Manipuris.