SHILLONG: Chasing a necessary victory, Manipur beat Railways in style to reach the semifinals of the 20th Women’s National Championships in Bokakhat, Assam, on Wednesday.
The Manipur women won 4-0 to take top spot in Group A, winning all five of their matches to take a maximum 15 points, according to the official All India Football Federation website.
The North East team will now face Delhi in the last-four stage on May 11.
Orissa take on Jharkhand in the other semi, also on May 11.
Of the six teams in Group A, it was a straight fight between the top two on Wednesday, as no other side were in a position to claim first place.
Manipur went into the fixture behind on goal difference, making a win against Railways necessary.
Railways ended with a goal difference of +60, while Manipur have +54.
In the day’s other group matches in Bokakhat, Maharastra thrashed Uttar Pradesh 10-0, while Madhya Pradesh put two past Chhattisgarh.
MP and Maharashtra will play the final group game on Friday, which will coincidentally decide third place as both teams currently have six points.
Meanwhile, in the final Group C fixture in Dibrugarh, Sikkim failed to end their tournament with a victory, going down 1-0 to Kerala.
The tiny North Eastern state thus end in fifth place with two wins and three losses.
Tripura finished dead last with zero points, having lost all five of their matches.
Delhi qualified from the group, followed by West Bengal, Kerala and Bihar.
Six North East teams entered the competition (only Meghalaya and Nagaland were missing) and Manipur are the lone survivors.
Hosts Assam looked good for a while for first place in Group D, but ended fourth behind Jharkhand, Pondicherry and Tamil Nadu.
Arunachal Pradesh are in fifth and will have to defend that position against bottom-dwellers Uttarakhand on Thursday; both teams have yet to even score a goal in their four defeats each, although Arunachal have a better goal difference.
In the round-up of NE teams, Mizoram finished fourth in Group B. They won two, drew one and lost two to end on seven points behind toppers Orissa, Goa and Haryana. Gujarat are at the bottom with zero points.
Fifth-placed Karnataka go up against Haryana to finish off the group fixtures on Thursday.
