Services and Kerala win Santosh Trophy quarter-finals

Srinagar, Jun 5 (UNI) Services and Kerala today win their quarter- final league matches of the 62nd National Football tournament for the Santosh Trophy defeated defending champion Punjab and hosts Jammu and Kashmir respectively at Bakshi Stadium here.

In the first match of the day Services stunned Punjab 2-1.

S Raleng gave the Services an early lead when he scored in the eighth minute after beating the Punjab defenders.

Lal Rutafela made it 2-0 for the Services as he scored a brilliant goal 15 minutes later.

Down by two goals, Punjab went all out in the second half and made a number of moves. However, the Punjab forwards failed to find the net.

Harvinder Singh was however able to reduced the margin when he scored in the 66th minute for Punjab.

In the second match of the day formidable Kerala trounced hosts Jammu and Kashmir 3-1.

Kerala team dominated the proceedings right from the word go and striker Javeed O K draw first blood for his team in the 11 minute of the game when he dribble the ball into the hosts goal 1-0.

The Jammu and Kashmir team players had to fight hard to get equaliser. However, in the 42nd minute, Ishfaq scored a brilliant field goal to make it 1-1 after beating the Kerala defenders.

Both the teams were 1-1 till half time.

Kerela skipper Abdul Noushad K M scored yet another goal for the visitors in 6th minute of second half to take the score 2-1.

It was Asif Saheer T who made it 3-1 after scoring a brilliant goal in the dieing minutes of the game.

Kerala could have scored a number of goals more in the second half of the game, however, Jammu and Kashmir goal keeper Tanvir dashed their chances.

Jammu and Kashmir got a number of chances in the first half of the game. But, the strong defence of Kerala foiled all attempts of them.

UNI FMH RKM UCS2038