Santosh Trophy: Tamil Nadu into semis

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Tamil Nadu booked their place in the semi-finals of 66th Santosh Trophy, They will meet Manipur at the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack on Saturday. In the first semi-final to be held on Friday, Kerala will take on Services at the same venue.

Services, after holding hosts Orrisa in their last league match on Wednesday, garnered seven points to emerge toppers in Group C.

Tamil Nadu, who had won their previous two games in Group D against Delhi and Mizoram respectively, needed only a draw to progress to the last four.

They were successful in doing just that. Defending like tigers, the Syed Sabir Pasha-coached team held Railways to a goalless draw in their final quarterfinal league match at the Kalinga Stadium, here, on Wednesday. Tamil Nadu finished their league campaign with 7 points (two wins and a draw).

The match had shades of the Barcelona-Chelsea Champions League second-round semi-final tie with Tamil Nadu, similar to The Blues, deciding to park the bus in front of the goal.

Railways kept hunting for that solitary goal that would have instead taken them into the next round. But Tamil Nadu’s quality backline — Suman Raj, K. Sathish, M. Murthy and N. Dhinakaran — stood firm like soldiers to thwart every railway move.

Railway’s second-half pressure was relentless and they needed their strikers — Balraj Singh and Lal Mohan Hansda — to be at their alert best.

On one occasion early in the second half, an unmarked Balraj was inches away from heading right-winger Phool Chand Hembram’s cross past TN custodian S. Rajini Kumar. That was the closest they came to scoring.

Even though, Railways' midfield kept peppering promising balls, their forwards failed to click. This is where suspended striker PC Riju (Railways’ backbone), was sorely missed.

Murthy, who came in place of the suspended R. Naveen Kumar, gelled brilliantly with his partner Sathish.

The duo man-marked and cleared the area with absolute assurance. There was a bit of anxiety when Murthy had to retreat after colliding with teammate Charles Anandraj with a dozen-odd minutes remaining.

However, Murthy's replacement D. Edison took to the role like a duck to water.
Earlier, the match started on a brisk note with both teams sharing equal possession.

However, it was Tamil Nadu who looked more likely to score. The first chance came in the ninth minute when striker U. Jayakumar dribbled past a couple of Railways defenders on the right but his finishing lacked conviction.

No sooner, S. Karthik, playing as a holding striker, earned Tamil Nadu a free-kick from a promising position near the edge of the box. Midfielder Charles stepped up and sent in a powerful low shot to the left.

But Railways goalkeeper Ethesham Ahmed dived full length to make a commendable save. Let's kill the anti-football jibes. Faced with the situation, Tamil Nadu had to defend deep.

Results
At Bhubaneswar: Group 'D': Tamil Nadu 0 drew with Railways 0. Delhi 3 (Mahender Singh 53, Dheeraj Singh 78, Kamson Kabui 87) bt Mizoram 0. Cuttack: Group ‘C’: Haryana 6 (Abhisek 5, 67, 83; Habib Khan 37, Ajay 45, Devender 53) bt Chattisgarh 1 (K. Praveen 54). Services 1 (Gordan Zoran Chhana 55) drew with Orrisa 1 (Gokul Oram 33).