UP qualify for Quarters, Punjab pump in 28 goals against Gujarat

Chandigarh, July 13 (UNI) Punjab equalled Asom's record of scoring 28 goals without reply in their match against GuJrat in the ongoing third Junior Girls Under-17 Football Championship at the Punjab Engineering College Campus here today.

On both occasions, Gujarat were victims in their Cluster H qualifying round matches. Asom had routed Gujarat 28-0 on Tuesday and today Punjab bombarded Gujarat by an identical score.

After two successive defeats, Gujarat bowed out of the competition while, Punjab and Asom have three points each after playing one match apiece. Assam and Punjab meet on July 15 to decide the qualifiers from this cluster for the quarter-final league.

In another match Uttar Pradesh registered their second successive triumph in Cluster G, beating Kerala by a solitary goal scored by Pinky Sharma in the 43rd minute. With six points from two matches, Uttar Pradesh became the first team to qualify for the Group B quarter-final league.

Punjab toyed with Gujarat in their opening match. They took just 36 seconds to start demolishing Gujarat as Sukhdeep caught the Gujarat defence napping. Sukhdeep contributed seven goals (36 seconds, 3rd, 26th, 50th, 51st, 65th and 68th minutes). However, Gurpreet topscored with 11 goals (12th, 22nd, 27th, 34th, 35th, 54th, 55th, 62nd, 69th, 70th, 77th).

Other Punjab scorers were: Amandeep (18th, 20th, 32nd, 57th, 76th), Vimandeep Kaur (38th, 39th, 48th, 67th) and Hardeep (72nd).

UNI XC HS PM RN1250