Goa tame Punjab to enter final

Goa stormed into the final of the Santosh Trophy National Football Championship, beating last year's runners-up Punjab 2-0 in the second semi-final in Kochi on Saturday.

The Goans, three-time champions, take on Maharashtra in the final on Monday.

Peter Carvalho and Nicholas Rodrigues scored for the winners.

Six-time winners Punjab struggled throughout to match the rhythm of the Goans, who are on a song, pumping in 39 goals in their last five matches in the tournament.

Continuous forays, cutely woven with short passes, kept the game entirely with the Goan yellow brigade. The surges yielded results too, with four corners coming their way in the first 12 minutes.

The fourth, taken by Nicholas Rodrigues from right, flew down the danger area and Peter Carvalho smartly headed home from the packed penalty box, just 13 minutes into the match (1-0).

The in-form Anthony Pereira, who scored four goals in their tie against Assam in the first quarter-final, found himself under close surveillance, but did well to breakaway and knit moves upfront with the dangerous Freddy Mascarenhas.

Medio Climax Lawrence almost increased the lead 10 minutes later but his powerful long-ranger unfortunately hit the bar before going out.

The Goans never allowed the Punjab defence to relax or the forwards to answer with counter strides. Surjeet Singh and Gurpreet Singh worked overtime, but still could not crack the rival citadel and pose serious threats to Felix D'Souza under the Goan bar.

In the third minute of the second half, Nicholas, who set up the first goal, latched on to a diagonal pass from Anthony on the right to double the lead and put the issue beyond reach of Punjab.