Santosh Trophy: Railways to meet Mizoram in final

Railways edged Maharashtra 5-3 on penalties to reach the Final of the 68th Santosh Trophy after the match ended 1-1 in regulation time. They will now meet Mizoram in the summit clash at the Kanchenjunga Stadium in Siliguri on Sunday.

Railways goalkeeper Ehtesham Ahmed made two fine saves at the start of the shootout to deny Maharashtra’s Praneel Mendon and Vijith Shetty to gain an upper hand over their rivals. Railways’ PC Riju, Raju Singh, Dipankar Das and Susil Kisku all converted their spot kicks leaving Paresh Shivalkar and Linekar Machado’s takes meaningless.

In regulation time, Mohammed Shafique gave Maharashtra the lead in the 24th minute with Susil Kisku coming off the bench to convert a penalty in the 70th minute.

It stayed 1-1 after 90 minutes and extra time.  

The blue shirts turned on the heat from the word go keeping the rival defense on tenterhooks with regular forays inside the final third. The attacks were mostly from the left wing where Paresh Shivalkar used al his experience into play floating in some delightful crosses for lone striker Allan Dias.

Earlier, shoddy goalkeeping by Tamil Nadu’s Arun Pradeep helped Mizoram score a 3-1 victory and enter final.

Two-time finalists Tamil Nadu took the lead at the stroke of half-time through A Raegan, but  a rejuvenated Mizoram, aided by a goalkeeping gaffe, drew abreast through a long range strike from substitute David Lalrinmuana in the 62nd minute.

They then scored twice in extra-time through Zico Zoremsanga and substitute F Lalrinpuia (94th and 119 minute) to steal victory.

Goalkeeper Pradeep was at fault in both the equaliser and second goal. While he erred in judging the flight of the ball from David’s 35-yard drive, the second one saw him quake in his boots inside the six yard area when should have come out.

After the match a delighted Mizoram Coach H V Vanlalthlanga said: “It is a great moment for Mizoram.

This is the first time we are going to play in the final and I feel the boys deserved it for their good showing throughout the tournament.”

“Tamil Nadu did very well to contain us in the first half. They played good football. But I am glad the boys came back strongly after the break.”