In their Santosh Trophy group A match on Friday, defending champions Kerala defeated Goa 3-2 thanks to a fortunate own goal.
Nijo Gilbert’s penalty gave Kerala the lead in the 27th minute, and when Riswanali Edakkavil tapped in from close range following a corner, Kerala appeared to be coasting (57th).
However, tragedy struck in the span of two minutes when Goa equalised thanks to a penalty kick from Mahammed Faheez. Faheez’s addition of a second in the 73rd minute quickly changed the momentum.
Before Asif OM accidentally put the ball into his own net to give Kerala a fortunate victory, both teams wasted a flurry of opportunities in the final 10 minutes.
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Maharashtra is tied 1–1 against the hosts Odisha.
Hosts Odisha tied Maharashtra 1-1 late in the second half in another group A match, helped by a boisterous crowd at the Capital Football Arena.
Odisha had a better first half, controlling not just possession but also generating lots of chances, but they were unable to score the opening goal.
Maharashtra took advantage of a mishandled clearing in the second half, and Armansh Ansari’s close-range goal in the 57th minute gave them the lead.
In the 83rd minute, Chandra Muduli erased the advantage.
Karnataka’s late comeback against Punjab
Punjab were held to a 2-2 draw in the second game of the afternoon by a late Karnataka comeback.
Punjab scored twice in four minutes following a scoreless first half through Kamaldeep (65th) and Bipul Kala (69th).
P Kamalesh scored a goal for Karnataka in the 82nd minute, while Robin Yadav equalised in the 90+3rd.
There are two groups of six teams each made up of twelve teams, and these teams will play one another in a round-robin fashion.
The top two teams from each group will travel to Riyadh for the semifinal and final, where they will become the first Santosh Trophy teams to play on foreign land.
