A ruthless Manipur blanked Karnataka 3-0 to enter the semifinals of the Santosh Trophy National Football Championship at the Kottappadi Stadium here on Saturday.
Striker Lunminlen Haokip struck a brace (18 & 42) while Somishon Shirak (44) scored the other goal as Manipur completed its league engagements with nine points from four matches.
Karnataka paid the price for some tardy defending in the first half. From the start, the Karnataka defence looked susceptible to swift counters from the Manipur side.
The opening goal came through a fast break when Somishon Shirak moved up through the right flank and easily warded off Darshan’s challenge to arrow in a pass to Lunminlen who scored from close range.
Manipur held the aces and translated its dominance when Luminlen broke free from the left and rounded a couple of defenders to score his second goal in the 42nd minute.
Two minutes later, Somishon profited from more slack marking. He found space to fire in a shot which was parried by Karnataka goalkeeper Jayanth kumar. However, the rebound came back to him which he tapped.
Karnataka gave a vastly improved performance in the second half but Manipur’s defence didn’t allow any leeway and the North East side played percentage football to preserve its lead.
The result: Manipur 3 (Lunminlen Haokip 18, 42, Somishon Shirak 44) bt Karnataka 0.
Today’s matches: Rajasthan v West Bengal (Malappuram), 4 p.m., Meghalaya v Punjab (Manjeri), 8 p.m.