By Our Reporter
Shillong, May 23: Kerala came from a goal down to beat Meghalaya 2-1 in their quarterfinal of the Swami Vivekananda U-20 Men’s National Football Championship 2026 in Narainpur, Chhattisgarh, on Saturday morning.
Mebanlamlynti Masharing scored in under 20 minutes for Meghalaya but Kerala fought their way back with a couple of goals to win.
Meghalaya was therefore unable to repeat the feat of beating Kerala as they had done in the U-20 Men’s NFC last year.
That match, incidentally, had ended 2-1 in Meghalaya’s favour. A counterattacking move saw Mebanlamlynti, who scored seven goals across the state’s five matches, rush up the pitch and Kerala’s goalkeeper came out of the box to try and clear the ball. However, there was indecision between keeper and a defender and Meban seized the initiative and pulled off a successful bicycle kick from a great distance to give Meghalaya the lead in the 17th minute.
However, a mistake in their own defence cost Meghalaya the equaliser.
A back pass to goalie Jovialstar L Lyngkhoi took several bumps along the uneven ground and proved difficult to deal with.
Sheril Thomas was heading towards the keeper, saw his opportunity and pinched the ball to score in the 26th minute.
Kerala would be able to take the lead before half time, with Calwin Thomas (44’) delivering what would prove to be the winner after a defender failed to clear the ball, which gave the Kerala midfielder a chance to shoot.
Although a hard blow to the Meghalaya boys, who had been in the sweltering Chhattisgarh since the first week of May, they did have a good run up to this point, winning all four of their Group A matches, against Bihar 3-1 on 9 May, Jharkhand 5-0 on 11 May, Andhra Pradesh 8-1 on 13 May and Rajasthan 3-0 on 17 May.
