Manipur Police SC and Sethu FC make way to the finals
May 21, 2019, Ludhiana
Manipur and Sethu FC, Madurai won their respective matches in a goal flooded meet up.
Manipur won over Gokulam Kerala FC 4-2, while Gokulam FC Madurai ran over SSB Football Club 8-1 setting up the title clash between both in the Guru Nanak Stadium, Ludhiana.
Bala Devi stole the show by netting 4 goals for her team, who came back from a 1-2 deficit despite going down to 10 girls after the sending off of the defender Romi Devi in the 47th minute, Bala now has 26 goals in the season.
Manipur came on to the pitch not to repeat the same mistakes as the previous games, so they came out with a 4-4-2 formation where Bala and Daya Devi were given the duty up front.
Bala understanding the bigger picture dropped deep in the midfield and started feeding the ball to Daya. This move worked for them resulting in the first goal of the game in the quarter hour mark.
In the second semifinal, Sethu FC’s Sabitra Bhandari netted 4 goals to take her tournament tally to 13. But it was Dangmei Grace who stole the show with her display from the right wing as she scored a hat-trick and made a couple of assists to win the Player of the Match award.
SSB started off the game at a higher tempo, laying a proverbial siege on the Sethu penalty area. They created plenty of chances in the opening exchanges, but failed to capitalise, something that cost them dearly later on. The Final is to be played on Wednesday.
