Shillong, Sep 11: The Meghalaya girls’ impressive run in the Sub-Junior National Football Championship came to an end today morning after they were defeated by Jharkhand 2-1 in their semifinal match in Amritsar.
The day began well enough with Larihun Songthiang giving Meghalaya the lead in the 37th minute but Jharkhand fought back in the second half and overcame the deficit to win thanks to goals from Anushka Kumari (57′) and Beena Kumari (87′).
The Meghalaya girls put on a fine show this year by winning all three of their group games against Gujarat, North East rivals Assam and Chhattisgarh, which carried them into the semifinals.
They outperformed the boys’ team, with Meghalaya exiting the Sub-Junior and Junior competitions in the group stage. This will have been a little disappointing as the state were the defending champions in the Sub-Junior boys and were semifinalists in the Juniors when the tournaments were last held in 2019.