Tamil Nadu maintained their winning momentum going as they defeated Tripura 7-0 in their cluster VIII match at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Chennai, on Thursday.
With this victory Tamil Nadu progressed into the pre quarters and will play the winners of the Cluster VII on Sunday.
Tamil Nadu like their previous two matches started the game on an attacking note and scored early on in the 12th minute as the Pradeep found the back of the net as he was left unmarked. Tripura tried hard to score the equalizer but their strikers failed to convert the chances that came their way.
Ten minutes later their main man Riju was back in action as extended the lead to 2-0 and in the 27th minute Kulothangan got the ball past Tripura custodian to make it 3-0 for Tamil Nadu.
With goals being scored at regular intervals Muthu who had found his name thrice in the scoring sheet against Himachal Pradesh was left unmarked and in the 30th minute he took the lead to 4-0.
With match entering into the lemon break Tamil Nadu were comfortably 4-0 ahead and they knew that the victory was theirs. Tripura got couple of chances but they failed to get the ball past Tamil Nadu custodian.
And as expected the second half also witnessed a complete domination by the hosts. In the 65th minute Riju scored his brace to help Tamil Nadu take an invincible 5-0 lead.
Adding woes to already tottering Tripura confidence was Muthu who scored his brace in the 87th minute and Alamurugan added his name to the scoring sheet in the added time as Tamil Nadu completed their rout over Tripura to qualify for the pre quarter finals.
From the archive. First published on footballkerala.com on Thursday 28 May 2009, restored from the site's 2012 database. Text as originally published.