 "Santosh Trophy: Mizoram beat Punjab to inch closer to semi-final berth; Karnataka defeat Odisha to stay in hunt")
Kolkata: Mizoram virtually sealed a semi-final berth with a 2-1 win against Punjab while Karnataka too remained in the hunt beating Odisha by an identical scoreline in the National Football Championship for the 72nd Santosh Trophy on Saturday.
The North-Eastern outfit now have three wins from as many matches to be on nine points to lead group B, followed by Karnataka, who have six points from two matches.
Mizoram had a rousing start to the contest at the Howrah Stadium with Lal Remruata scoring two back to back goals in space of two minutes
In the seventh minute, Remruata drew first blood off a rebound and struck his second in a couple of minutes. Jitender Rawat pulled one back for Punjab in the 56th minute.
Odisha gave Karnataka a stiff challenge at the Rabindra Sarovar Stadium.
Karnataka drew the first blood through Leon Augustine in the 26th minute but Odisha restored parity in the first-half injury time with Arjun Naik’s 45+2nd minute strike.
The second-half saw both teams fighting for a decisive goal and it was Rajesh S who scored the winner for Karnataka in the 87th minute.
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