Khelo India 2019, Football: Mizoram boys and Manipur girls win U-21 Boys and Girls titles in dramatic penalty shootouts

U-21 Girls winners Manipur girls celebrating their win over Tamil Nadu at Khelo India Youth Games

Pune, January 19: Northeastern neighbours Mizoram Boys and Manipur Girls annexed Under-21 football gold medals recording dramatic identical 4-3 penalty shoot victories in the Khelo India Youth Games.

Mizoram Boys beat Kerala and Manipur Girls beat Tamil Nadu to claim the gold in their respective categories at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex on Saturday.

The Mizo boys had the better of exchanges but were unable to convert that into goals. They did exhibit a lot of aggression but were made to wait for the penalty shootouts to beat their rivals after the matches ended goalless in the regulation period.

But their penalty takers served them well. In the shoot out, Mizoram’s scorers were Lalmawizuala, Lalmuanawma, Vanlalnghenga and Lalnunzama, while Fahad Aliyar, Arjun Kaladharan and Gokul scored for Kerela.

In the Girls U-21 final, Th. Babysana Devi, Sultana, W.Rajnibala Devi, and H. Daya Devi converted their kicks for Manipur, while Kowsalya Siva Samy, Karthika and Pavithra found the target for Tamil Nadu.

Earlier in the Boys Under-17 section final, Karnataka despite dominating the proceedings most of the time had to wait for the penalty shootout to put it across Punjab 4-2 after the teams were tied 1-1 at the end of the regulation time.

In the match for the third place, Aman Khanna’s brace enabled Maharashtra beat a spirited Kerala 2-1 to claim the Under-17 bronze medal.

In the Girls Under-17 final Jharkhand outpaced Odisha 2-1 to win the Girls U-17 Football title while Manipur ousted Kerala 2-0 to bag the bronze.

The Karnataka Boys Under-17 team played a dominating game against Punjab in the final but their strikers could not convert the chances that came their way. Karnataka surged ahead through Uzen Chhojzang who capitalised on the defensive lapses and shot home a fine goal (1-0) in the 13th minute.

After taking the lead, Karnataka piled up more pressure on Punjab but could not increase the lead due to the poor finishing.

However, 19 minutes into the second session, Punjab launched a counter-offensive against the run of play. That earned them a penalty and S. Lotjem made no mistake in converting the spot kick to draw parity (1-1). There were no more goals.

After that, the teams failed to break the deadlock leading to a penalty shootout in which Karnataka emerged triumphant.

For Karnataka, CS Khwairakpam, Chanambam R.Singh, Sumit Kumar Puran and Alfred Lal Routsang converted their spot kick.

For Punjab, only Mangal Ram and S.Lotjem could find the target while M.Singhson and Akash M failed to beat the goalkeeper.

For the third place, Aman Khanna scored in 30th and 76th minute to help Maharashtra beat Kerala 2-1. Anandhu N reduced the margin for the losers in the 81st minute.

In Girls (U-17) final, Jharkhand were put ahead by Sunita in the 12th minute and then Salina made it 2-0 in the 63rd minute. Sarita reduced the gap for the losers, Odisha.

Manipur beat Kerala 2-0 for the third place. Usham (37th) and N. Priyanka Devi (44th) were the goal-getters for the winners.