Shafeel P.P. and Samir Murmu scored within the first half as six-time winners Providers put up a commanding show within the first quarterfinal of the 77th Nationwide Soccer Championship for Santosh Trophy, defeating Railways 2-0 on the Golden Jubilee Stadium right here on Monday.

Pressured to play second fiddle for a lot of the match in opposition to a rampaging Providers facet, the railwaymen had been swept off their toes as early as within the ninth minute when a foul within the space allowed the winners to take the lead by way of a penalty transformed by Shafeel PP. Their second objective got here nearly on the stroke of halftime; an excellent effort by Samir Mumru noticed Providers go into the break main 2-0.

That Providers, who made the semifinals within the final version too, had been the higher group on the pitch was clear from the very starting. Within the sixth minute, midfielder Rahul Ramakrishnan had a probing ball in his possession on the left and as he was reducing in, Railways defender Nitesh Kumar Yadav challenged him in a fashion that didn’t obtain the referee’s approval.

Defender Shafeel, who stepped in to take the spot-kick had the goalkeeper Raja Barman overwhelmed convincingly on the best, however the referee ordered the kick to be retaken as one of many Providers gamers rushed contained in the field even earlier than the shot was taken. Unperturbed, Shafeel slammed the ball in as soon as once more, this time on the left.

Providers had been principally creating bother for the rival defenders from the left. The Railways’ defence seemed harassed and managed to outlive until the forty fifth minute. Nonetheless, they’d no reply to the objective scored by Samir Murmu, which was a spectacular effort. Latching on to the ball on the best, Murmu took an angular shot that entered the objective, nearly kissing the far publish.

Railways are three-time former champions who additionally completed runners-up on six different events. Through the years, Railways have produced some legendary gamers — PK Banerjee, Arun Ghosh, and Prasanta Sinha, to call a number of.

However on Monday, they weren’t of their aspect and did little to stretch the Providers defence. The red-shirted Providers had been everywhere in the pitch and will have gained by an even bigger margin had they not missed a number of probabilities.

(This story has not been edited by News18 workers and is revealed from a syndicated information company feed – IANS)