Profligate Gujarat held to goalless draw by Nagaland

Gurgaon, Sep 25 (UNI) Gujarat squandered at least three sitters and split points after playing a goalless draw with Nagaland in a Cluster VI tie of the 61st National Football Championship for Santosh Trophy here today.

Playing with a 4-4-2 formation, Gujarat dominated the second half but were unlucky not to have collected three points and thanks to the draw, they are in a precarious situation with two draws from as many matches.

Winner of Wednesday's match between Nagaland and Karnataka will see through to the pre-quarterfinal stage while Gujarat's hopes will rest on a drawn result.

Today's match began with Nagaland having a slight edge and they in fact could have surged ahead in the 15th minute when midfielder Bendang fed a wonderful pass to an advancing striker Viliebeizo to the left of the box with nobody nearby. But the Nagaland striker's left-footer went past the goalkeeper and missed the far post too by a whisker. That was all Nagaland had in the first session and Gujarat started to take control of the match but they too wasted two fine chances before the breather.

In the 36th minute, following a confusion in the Nagaland defence, Sagar Thapa beat the off-side trap and latched onto an aerial ball before lobbing it over the goalkeeper only to see it sail over the bar as well.

Within seconds, a surprise through pass from Thapa saw Mehul Rana clear on the top of the box with only the goalkeeper to beat but the Gujarat striker's right-footer was parried away.

After the breather, Gujarat attacks became sharper and Thapa and Rana made several forays inside the rival box and they were almost rewarded in the 66th minute following a corner kick.

Instead of taking a long corner, Anil Pal Tomar passed it to an unmarked K Rajani but the latter, in a one-to-one position with the goalkeeper, lost his balance and his feeble push was collected by the goalkeeper without much difficulty.

Nagaland also wasted a chance in the 76th minute when Bendang, after collecting Renthungo's pass from the left, took a left-footed volley which crashed onto the near post.

Gujarat were unlucky not to have sealed the match in the injury time (91st) when Sagar Thapa received a long clearanace from the midfield and with Nagaland players yet to get back to their positions, Thapa ran towards the goal but his power-packed, close-range blinder hit the goalkeeper's fingers and went out.

Nagaland custodian Zuthungo had his fingers broken and he had to be taken away for medical attention.

Later, a disappointed Gujarat coach Pious Abraham rued the missed chances and said his side should have won by three goals.

''My boys played perfectly to the plan and we were only unlucky not to score even once in the match. Now we will have to wait for the Nagaland-Karnataka match. We were clearly the better team and deserved to win. But these things happen and you can't really help,'' he told UNI.

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