Santosh Trophy 2009: Kerala cruises ahead with 3-0 victory

 Kerala defeated Chhattisgarh 3-0 to pocket three points and qualify for the pre quarterfinals

in the Cluster I match of the 63rd National Football Championship for Santosh Trophy at Coimbatore on Thursday,  and will play the leaders of the Cluster II on Sunday.

Both the teams played an attacking game but it was Kerala who had the experience of NP Pradeep, Sushant Matthew, Justine Stephen and R Dhanarajan that emerged victorious.

It was Kerala that got the first chance early on to score but they failed to capitalize on the opportunity that came their way. But they were paid for their hardwork as in the 25th minute skipper NP Pradeep found the back of the net to give his team a 1-0 lead.

Chhattisgarh could have scored the equalizer in the 32nd minute but their strikers shot was well saved by Kerala custodian KT Navas.

As the match progressed both the teams tried hard to score but failed. Kerala could have extended the lead in the 43rd minute as they were awarded a penalty. Mahindra United midfielder Sushanth Matthew’s penalty kick was well saved by Gurpreet Singh as he punched the ball to safety to avoid Kerala from extending the lead.

With a 1-0 lead in the first half the script in the second half was no different. Kerala kept on attacking and in the 62nd minute Zubair K headed the ball past Gurpreet Singh to increase the lead to 2-0.

Sushant Matthew who had missed the penalty in the first half came back strongly and made for his previous blunder as his powerful 35-yarder shot swirled into the back to the net to help his team take a 3-0 lead and seal the fate of the game in his teams favour.

Source: the-aiff.com

Visit our gallery for more pictures from the match

From the archive. First published on footballkerala.com on Thursday 28 May 2009, restored from the site's 2012 database. Text as originally published.