Goa draw with Manipur, enter semis

Favourites Goa forced last year's runners-up Manipur to a goalless draw and entered the semi-finals in the 38th Junior National football championship, for the B C Roy trophy, in Jaipur on Monday.

In the four-team Group 'B', goa finished second with five points while Manipur topped the group with seven points.

In the semi-finals, slated for January 2, Group 'A' champions Bengal will meet Goa, while Group 'B' winners Manipur will take on Group 'A' runners-up Punjab.

The match between Manipur and Goa could be described as listless as both teams engaged themselves in mid-field play for most part of the match and neither side made any serious attempt to score.

One could understand the reason for such a poor showing by the two teams as Manipur had already made it to the last four and Goa only needed a draw. Since there was no pressure on both the sides, they played the match to their plan of not exerting unnecessarily.

Hosts Rajasthan were scheduled to play the last quarter-final league tie against Kerala, but the match would be inconsequential as the two teams are already out of the race.

The Rajasthan state football association is hosting the championship after a gap of 37 years. The participants were divided into six pools, with Jaipur hosting the matches in four pools and the remaining two pools being played at Jodhpur. One team from each pool qualified for the quarter-final league and champions Bihar and runners-up Manipur joined them.

The eight quarter finalist were again divided into two pools.

The semi-finals will take place at Jaipur, but the final would be hosted at Jodhpur on January 4.