Shillong, May 5: Meghalaya ended their Group A campaign in the Swami Vivekananda U-20 Men’s National Football Championship 2025 with a mammoth 7-0 victory against Bihar in Narainpur, Chhattisgarh, on Monday.
Meghalaya had already qualified for the quarterfinals after winning their second match against Kerala, but made it a perfect three wins in three on Monday with their biggest margin of victory yet. The Meghalaya boys had also defeated Rajasthan in their opening fixture on April 29.
Coach Bobby L Nongbet made just one change from the Kerala game, bringing in Franky Dkhar in place of Banlamkupar Rynjah at the start of the match.
Ricky Kharkongor (4’), RT Hanson Pdang (9’), Riborlang L Lyngkhoi (13’) and Franky (17’) made sure the game was pretty much done and dusted less than 20 minutes into the contest with Meghalaya taking a 4-0 lead in double quick time.
Ricky opened the scoring with a one-on-one finish, Hanson made it two with a stunning free-kick, Riborlang added the third as he capitalised on a goalkeeping error and Franky smashed one in with his left foot.
The game settled down after that until half time but Meghalaya returned with three goals in the second half. Riborlang (48’) struck again with a brilliant shot from outside the box, Rimankhraw Kharumnuid (78’P) converted a penalty confidently and Pyrkhatshaphrang Sumer (90’+3) wrapped things up in stoppage time with a neat right-footed finish.
With only the top team from each of the eight groups progressing to the quarterfinals, Meghalaya had to deliver a strong performance and did so convincingly, with 13 goals scored and only one goal conceded in the three games.
Meghalaya will face Group B toppers Karnataka in the quarterfinal round on May 9. Karnataka still have a game to play but have already booked their spot in the knockout round.
This is an improvement on last year’s tournament, where Meghalaya were unable to progress from the group stage.
