Shillong, Dec 19: A brace of goals in the space of minutes from Donlad Diengdoh (49′, 51′) gave Meghalaya a 2-0 victory over Delhi in Group B’s third round of the Senior Men’s National Football Championship for the Santosh Trophy 2024-25 in Hyderabad on Thursday.

It was practically a must-win game for Meghalaya as anything less would have made their path to the quarterfinals extremely difficult. Meghalaya had drawn 2-2 with Tamil Nadu in their first match before losing 1-0 to Kerala two days ago. Delhi, meanwhile, were looking for a victory to put them into the last-eight after they had won both of their opening two games of the final round.

Meghalaya coach Hering Shangpliang made one change on Thursday – the injured Fullmoon Mukhim was replaced by Kevin Rymbai in the starting lineup, with vice-captain Damanbhalang Chyne donning the skipper’s armband.

After a deadlocked first half, Donlad struck twice in the first five minutes of the second session. The first goal came after Damanbhalang unleashed a ferocious low shot from distance that Delhi goalkeeper Raj Mahato did well to get down to block but the rebound fell in place for Donlad, who reacted faster than anyone else to the opportunity at hand.

Then, before Delhi could even react, a through ball saw him go round Mahato, who had come to the edge of the box to try and cut off the Meghalaya striker, and Donlad was quick and accurate enough to fire the ball out of reach of the chasing defenders.

Delhi had a couple of fine chances to score after that but Siwel Rymbai in the Meghalaya goal pulled off excellent saves on at least two occasions to keep his maiden clean sheet of the final round. This was also the first time that Delhi had failed to score and first time they had conceded goals in Hyderabad.

The Top 4 from the group will qualify for the quarterfinals and this win takes Meghalaya up to third with 4 points. Kerala lead with a full 9 points after having defeated Odisha 2-0 earlier on Thursday. Delhi stay in second with 6 points, while Odisha are now behind Meghalaya with 3 points. Tamil Nadu (1) and Goa (0) are set to meet later on Thursday evening.

After a hard-fought match and deserved victory, Meghalaya will next take on Goa on Sunday at 2:30pm full of confidence but mindful that the job of reaching the knockouts is not yet finished.

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