Maharashtra’s (WIFA) women and men’s teams suffered defeats and made their exits from the AIFF National Football Championships 2021.
The State women lost to Mizoram 1-4 in the quarter-final round of the Senior Women’s Championship at the EMS Corporation Stadium, Kozhikode, on Sunday afternoon. Mizoram strikers Elizabeth Vanlalmawii and Lalnunsiami, both struck a brace of goals each to seal their win, while former junior international Karen Pais netted Maharashtra’s lone goal.
The Mizoram outfit started aggressively and asserted their dominance over the Maharashtrian team and snatched an early lead through Elizabeth in the 10th minute before Lalnunsiami doubled the lead in the 24th minute.
Maharashtra showed signs of fighting back when Karen found the target in the 47th minute. But Maharashtra’s hopes of getting back into the match, was dashed with Lalnunsiami netting her second goal to give Mizoram a two goal cushion (3-1 lead).
Mizoram continued to press for goal and Elizabeth scored for the second time in the match to complete the win and earn her team a place in the semi-finals.
Meanwhile, the Maharashtra men’s team crashed out in the initial phase losing to Rajasthan 0-1 in the concluding Group-B encounter at the at the Poornima University ground, Jaipur.
Rajasthan did well to match the fancied outfit Maharashtra and scored a shock goal in injury time to snatch a narrow victory and qualify for the next phase of the competition. Striker Youraj Singh struck the crucial winner in the first minute of injury time.
Results: Women – quarter-final: Maharashtra 1 (Karen Pais 47th min) lost to Mizoram 4 (Elizabeth Vanlalmawii 10th, 87th min, Lalnunsiami 24th, 66th min).
Men’s West Zone Group-B: Rajasthan 1 (Youraj Singh 90+1st min) beat Maharashtra 0.