Bengaluru, Sep 22 (IANS): Karnataka emerged victorious on their home turf, to emerge champions of Sub Junior Boys’ National Football Championship 2024-25 Tier 1, after defeating Manipur 5-1 at the Bangalore Football Stadium, on Sunday.
CH Sakip (7’, 27’, 65’) was in form for Karnataka, scoring a hat-trick while Rishaan Chaudhuri (44’) and Arvidrian Samwanki Lato (85’) pitched in with a goal apiece. Khutheipham Muktar Rehman (34’) scored the only goal for Manipur.
While Manipur had put in an expansive display on their road to the final, the hosts turned up to the summit clash showing more initiative and took the lead through Sakip in the seventh minute. Sakip made a fine run at the far post, where he found himself unmarked, as a cross was whipped in from the left. The fullback had to only touch the ball in from point-blank range.
Sakip scored his second of the afternoon when a Manipur defender handled Karnataka midfielder Chaudhuri’s shot from outside the box. The referee Harkomal Singh Duhra pointed to the spot. Sakip calmly slotted it home to double the home side’s lead.
Manipur, however, would not give in that easily and pulled one back through captain Rehman, who after receiving the ball from Laishram Mahesh Singh, belted it in from outside the box.
The hosts kept attacking in waves and looked in no mood to be complacent with their one-goal lead. Chaudhuri scored their third a few minutes before the half-time whistle, to give Karnataka the two-goal cushion again.
Manipur came out with heavier momentum in the second half, but Karnataka managed the early onslaught well before they scored a fourth. Sakip ran onto a long ball hooved from the defence and found himself one-on-one with the goalkeeper and he calmly completed his hat-trick.
The fifth and final nail in Manipur’s coffin was put in by Arvidrian, who was played through behind the defence. His shot took a deflection before looping into the goal.
The final played in Bengaluru on Sunday brought the curtains down on the three-week-long Sub Junior National Football Championships for boys’ and girls’ Tier 1 and Tier 2.