Kozhikode: The Railways reached Senior Women’s National Football Championship final on Tuesday, defeating Mizoram 6-5 on penalties, after the match ended 1-1 at extra time in Kozhikode, Kerala.
Both the teams created equal goal-scoring opportunities, but neither of them proved to be clinical in front of goal and at the halfway point, both teams went into the tunnel with the scoreline reading 0-0.
It was a box-to-box affair after the changeover, as both teams tried to breach the opponents more than once, but eventually, the last season’s runner-ups Railways took the lead midway through the second half. It was Mamta (70), who opened the scorebook for Railways.
A beautiful run by Tara, who quickly passed the ball to Mamta as she chipped it into the goal. But Mizoram’s Lalnunsiami pulled one back in injury time to take the match into extra time.
Just when the referee was about to blow the final whistle towards the end of injury time, Mizoram made a stunning comeback via Lalnunsiami’s solo goal, which lead the match into extra time.
Both the sides tried and failed to capitalise the 30 minutes of extra time, and the match headed into penalty shootout after 120 minutes of play.
Railways eventually emerged victorious in the shootout, after Grace Lalrampari and Vanlalhmangahzuali missed for Mizoram, while Suprava Samal was the only one to miss for Railways, thus the latter won the shootout by a 6-5 margin.
