Internet Desk: West Bengal maintain their dominance in the 71st Santosh Trophy today as the most successful team in the history of the competition defeated Meghalaya today in their last group league game by 2-0 to qualify for the semi finals as the Group A topper after five years. They also remained the only undefeated side in the Group A and qualified for the last four stage even before playing this game.
Mridul Banerjee’s team took an early lead in the 9th minute of the game as Ronald Singh scored a fine goal against the Highlanders. The game saw some ugly tackles and some reckless play, especially from the highlanders. Bengal players like Mumtaz Akhter, Pravat Lakra, Rana Gharami, Basant Singh and Manotosh Chakladar were badly injured during the game. Mridul told www.xtratime.in , “The played really rough against us. They punched on the neck of Mumtaz, kicked on the back of Rana Gharami, made some terrible tackles on Pravat, Manotosh and Basant as my team has turned out to be a mini hospital today. Unfortunately, the referee didn’t protect our players.”
Bengal confirmed their victory in the 86th minute as Manbir Singh made it 2-0 with a classic finish. Mridul said, “We don’t know who would be the opposition in the semi final. Tomorrow we will get the confirmation. We have come to know that our semi final clash will be on 23rd March.”
The way Bengal has been performing in this edition of the historic tournament, Bengal has a great chance to clinch another title.