Mizoram boys outplay Haryana, Delhi falter in Subroto Cup

New Delhi: Playing an attacking game of football, Mizoram boys thrashed a hapless Haryana 11-0 to all but make a place for themselves in the quarter-finals of the 56th edition of the Subroto Cup tournament at the Ambedkar Stadium, here on Saturday.

The hero of this one-sided victory was Morislorimzuala, who scored 4 goals, while other major contributors to the Mizo boys' win included Hryota (3) and Chuhunga, who scored a brace.

With teams having been divided into eight pools, only Pools C and F have been accorded the luxury of three teams each while the remaining six pools consist of four teams each. And knowing the advantage, the Mizos began with a positive frame of mind with the only thought of scoring maximum goals in their opening encounter.

To a large extent, they have already placed themselves in a position of strength with the margin of victory over Haryana. In their next match, they simply need to draw against Odisha for a sure-shot knockout place.

Even otherwise, it will be very difficult for Odisha to make the grade as they will have score more against Mizoram while scoring a reasonable win against Haryana as and when they meet.

But the credit must go to the Mizos who played total football which rendered the Haryana defence absolutely with no chance. In fact, the boys from Haryana were concentrating more on guarding their citadel which fell even now and then, rather than going in for an all-out attack against the northeastern team.

At the same venue, Chhattisgarh humbled a hapless Delhi NCR 6-0. Chhattisgarh though could have scored a few more goals but they messed up with some easy chances. The goal-scorers for Chhattisgarh were M Somokant and Solman Ekka.

But for the NCC team from Delhi, they found an easy prey in Gujarat, who lost 0-2. For NCC Varun Negi and Rahul Kumar struck a goal each

Another Delhi team, the Air Force Bal Bharti School began their Subroto Cup campaign on a bad note, losing by a big margin 0-8 to the school team from Jharkhand. For Jharkhand Mansingh, Bijendra, Ranjan and Binod scored the goals.

In the four matches played at Wellington ground, Maharashtra beat Lakshwadeep 8-0, Nagaland downed IPSC (Gujarat) 12-0, Sai Guwahati defeated Air Force Bal Bharati School Delhi 1-0 and the game between Delhi & Uttarakhand ended in a 1-1 draw.