Goa beat Meghalaya to enter pre-quarter finals of Santosh Trophy

Srinagar, May 31 (UNI) Title contenders Goa defeated Meghalaya 2-1 in their last league match to enter the pre-quarter finals of the 62nd National Football Championship for the Santosh Trophy here today.

Goa dominated the proceedings with striker Drupesh Dessai scoring in the early minutes to put his team in the lead.

In the 25th minute, Milton J Kharati of Meghalaya fired in the equaliser.

Striker F Fernades of Goa scored the all important winning goal to give his team a 2-1 lead in the 15th minute of the second half.

Meghalaya also got a number of chances to score, but they failed to capitalise on them.

Goa is the lone team to qualify from Cluster VIII as Meghalaya and Uttrakhand failed to reach the pre-quarterfinals.

Goa will now clash with Railways in the pre-quarterfinals on June 2.

Hosts Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi, Karnataka, Haryana, Railways and Tamil Nadu have already qualified from their respective clusters.

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