Swami Vivekananda U20 Men's NFC : Chandigarh become first team to qualify for QF's

Narainpur, April 14 (IANS) Chandigarh qualified for the Swami Vivekananda U20 Men's National Football Championship quarter-finals after a 1-0 win over Telangana at the Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama Ground in Narainpur, Chhattisgarh, on Monday.

Thanks to Manveer Singh's last-minute winner, Chandigarh ended Group E with a perfect tally of nine points, including prior victories over Pondicherry (5-0) and Uttarakhand (2-0). They will face Group F's winner, Delhi or Andhra Pradesh, in the quarter-final on April 17.

In the last match of Group E, a dead rubber, Uttarakhand defeated Pondicherry 5-1 to end their campaign with a win.

Requiring only a point to secure a quarter-final berth, Chandigarh were content with the score locked goalless for the majority of the match. For Telangana, it was a must-win fixture but they were unable to break down the Chandigarh defence, which kept its third clean sheet in a row.

Ultimately, Manveer Singh's third goal of the campaign in the fifth minute of stoppage time grabbed all three points for Chandigarh. After Surjakanta Singh's shot was half-cleared by Telangana, Manveer chested down the loose aerial ball and slotted it past goalkeeper Bairam Giri Prakash.

In the other game, Animesh Kumar Yadav starred with a hat-trick for Uttarakhand. He opened the scoring with a bottom-corner finish in the fourth minute of first-half stoppage time, added another from the penalty spot in the 69th, and netted a solid long-ranger in the 72nd.

Ashish Rawat (54') and Lokesh Joshi (80') scored the other two goals for Uttarakhand. Pondicherry captain N Hariharan had briefly halved the deficit in the 63rd minute, capitalising on a weak back pass to dink the ball over the goalkeeper.

--IANS

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