GUWAHATI, May 25 � The lone survivor from the North-east, Manipur, will lock horns against Services in the first semifinal of the 65th Santosh Trophy tomorrow.
A close match is on the cards as both the teams are studded with some brilliant players. Considering the performances in the previous matches, former champions Manipur have an edge over their opponent.
Manipur qualified from Cluster-III which was played at Sivasagar. In the knock-out pre-quarterfinal they defeated Kerala at Tinsukia.
In the quarterfinal league, they beat teams like Tamil Nadu and Chattishgarh. Further they held defending champions Bengal 2-2 and topped the group with seven points.
On the other hand, Services have qualified from Cluster V and beat Cluster VI winners Delhi in the pre-quarterfinal match. But they had to pass a tense time till they were declared qualifiers for the semifinal stage after the Punjab-Goa quarterfinal league match last evening.
In the group B quarterfinal league, Services collected two points from two draws as did Punjab and Goa. But on better goal difference, Services earned a berth in the last-four stage.
Manipur has a couple of good strikers like I Nilkumar Singh and L Tiken Singh. As a team, Manipur is a balanced one and all the players are hard working. They are very fast and overall their fighting spirit is praiseworthy.
The Services team�s attack is mostly depended on strikers Arjun Tudu and Suchungme Releng. Arjun in particular is very accurate in shooting at goal. Their midfielder Shaji A D�Silva is very effective and capable of creating space at the opponent�s goal area. But in comparison to their frontliners, the defenders have some weak points and if they could not fill the gaps Manipur strikers will definitely create some headache for them.
