Haryana sinks Meghalaya 1-0, moves into Santosh Trophy quarters

Gurgaon, Sep 21 (UNI) Pardeep Kumar's last gasp goal helped Haryana sink Meghalaya to sail into the quarterfinals of the 61st National Football Championship for the Santosh Trophy here today.

In the 88th minute of the pre-quarterfinal tie, substitute Pardeep made a brilliant header from a corner with the ball caressing the right side of his head to beat the outstretched hands of rival goalkeeper and crash into the net after hitting the inside of the upright.

Haryana now joins Goa, Maharashtra, Punjab and Kerala in the last eight stage of the competition, which begins from October 14.

An elated Haryana coach Sumesh Bagga told UNI later that the side was happy to make it to the quarterfinals after a 14-year gap.

''Last time we reached the last eight stage was in 1992 in Coimbatore. So the boys are happy but we would like to keep up the good show,'' he said.

Incidentally, it was the Meghalaya boys who had a slight edge over the hosts in an otherwise uninspiring match. The boys from the northeast were denied their trademark short passes and free run today, which had made them a formidable-looking outfit in the Cluster stage.

To make it worse, they also missed a couple of chances in the second half. Miss-passes and midfield scramble marked the dull first half with both the teams showing lack of proper strategy and there was not a single clear opening in this session.

Haryana defence, led by captain Pawan Kumar and goalkeeper Navjot Singh, however, did admirable work and the custodian in fact saved at least three scoring chances.

Meghalaya had the best chance to surge into the lead in the 59th minute. Fed by an aerial pass from Kyrshan Lyangshing, Marlangki Suting outpaced rival defender Sandip Malik but could not beat Navjot as his right-footer hit the leg of the onrushing goalkeeper.

Another chance came Meghalaya's way in the 83rd minute but Kyrshan's left-footer from a corner kick was saved near the goal line by a diving Navjot.

In between, in the 66th minute, Haryana striker Devesh's dipping shot from top of the box surprised the Meghalaya goalkeeper but missed the crosspiece by a whisker.

UNI PDS AY PM1803