2nd North East Olympic Games 2022: Meghalaya, Mizoram to clash in U-21 men’s football final

Nagaland go down to Mizoram 1-3 in first semi-final match

Dimapur, Nov. 13 (EMN): Meghalaya and Mizoram qualified for the final of the U-21 men’s football event at the 2^nd North East Olympic Games 2022 at MFA Turf, Polo Ground, on Sunday by winning their respective semifinal matches.

In front of a capacity crowd, Meghalaya dominated the proceedings to defeat Manipur 3 – 0.

Meghalaya’s players wove some magic on their home turf against one of the giant sides of the North East. The hosts were able to rule over Manipur straight from the word go as they scored through Figo Syndai and Nelson Rymbai inside the first quarter of the game.

Manipur displayed real fight but they could not find a way to break through the Meghalaya defence. Everbrightson Mylliempdah netted in another goal for the host team in the 88^th minute to seal their rivals’ fate.

Earlier, Mizoram rallied from a goal behind to beat Nagaland 3-1 in the first semifinal.

Pursunep thundered in a long-range strike for Nagaland in the 11^th minute and that swung the momentum in their favour for a short spell even as Mizoram got over the shock of conceding an early goal.

Nagaland committed quite a number of fouls and paid the price when Joseph Lalvenhima was pushed over in the box: Lalvenhima stepped up to take the resulting penalty and converted with ease.

With parity restored, Mizoram took control of the game and found two more goals on either side of half time through Aron Vanlalrinchhana and Rohlupuia

Manipur and Nagaland will face off in the bronze medal match on Tuesday at 4:30 pm.