IMPHAL, May 19: Manipur’s hope of entering semi final of the Santosh Trophy came alive today with a 2-2 draw against West Bengal. In their second quarter final league encounter played today at JN stadium, Guwahati, Manipur managed to drew West Bengal 2-2 and both the teams are levelled at 4 points each though Bengal has better goal differences in the point table. Manipur now need only one point to move into the semi final and they will play Chattisgarh on May 21. A draw against Chattisgarh will put Manipur into the semi final, Manipur manager L Dinamani informed IFP over phone this evening. Regarding today’s match against the mighty West Bengal, Dinamani said Manipur was trailing by two goals till the 69th minute. However, Manipur player fought back valiently and managed to reduce the goal difference with a 70th minute goal from Nabachandra. In the 82nd minute, Herojit made the equaliser and the match was completely under our control, Dinamani said adding Manipur got some three to four good chances to score in the dying minutes of the match but failed to convert any. In another match of the same ground played today Chattisgarh defeated TN by 3-2 goals. Earlier on May 17, Manipur defeated Tamilnadu (2-1) in their first encounter while West Bengal defeated Chattisgarh, 4-0. Dinamani also expressed hope that Manipur could defeat Chattisgarh as the later is not a good team and Manipur players have more confidence than their opponent team.
