Santosh Trophy 2024: West Bengal thrash UP 7-0, Maharashtra register first win

Kalyani (West Bengal):  Striker Robi Hansda was on song as hosts West Bengal routed Uttar Pradesh 7-0 in Group C qualifiers of the 78th National Football Championship for the Santosh Trophy at the Kalyani Stadium here on Monday. Hansda alone accounted for four goals for the winners, who led 5-0 at halftime. He opened the scoring in the eighth minute and completed his hat-trick with goals in the 33rd and 48th minute. While Hansda added another to his tally in the 83rd minute, not to be left far behind was Manotos Maji, who, too, scored three goals to record the second hat-trick of the match. With six points from two matches, Bengal are strongly placed in the group, followed by Bihar and Jharkhand, who have three points after two matches. The day’s other match was between these two teams, and Jharkhand emerged the winner with a 5-3 margin. The match witnessed a few ups and downs as Bihar shot into the lead through Mohammed Tauhid Ahmad, who scored in the eighth minute, only to find Jharkhand restore parity three minutes later through Manjeet Karmali. Finally, Jharkhand, who led 3-2 at halftime, scored more goals via Jaypal Singh Sirka (18’), Ranjit Mardi (26’), Pankaj Baskey (68’) and Upendra Hazam (90+4’). Apart from Tauhid Ahmad, Bihar’s other goals came from Karan Prajapati (62’) and Manjeet Karmali (own goal, 45+1). In other results, Maharashtra picked up three points in Group I at the Royal FC Stadium defeating Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu with a scoreline of 3-0. Himanshu Patil, who scored a goal in Maharashtra’s losing battle against Rajasthan the other day, found the net twice in this match to lead his team to victory. Sumit Bhandari opened the scoring for Maharashtra in the fifth minute. The winners now have three points from two matches. The leaders in this group, however, are Gujarat and Rajasthan with four points each. The two teams met in the day’s other encounter that ended in a goalless draw. –IANS