Maharashtra made a positive winning start as they romped to a facile 4-1 win against Gujarat in the opening Group-B league match of the West Zone leg of the National Football Championship for the Santosh Trophy 2018-19 to be held at Solapur, on Friday.
The Maharashtra side dominated play from the start and took an early lead when Arif Shaikh scored from a penalty in the seventh minute. Referee Vishal Prajapati awarded the penalty after a Gujarat defender handled the ball in the area.
Three minutes later Mrunal Tandel struck the second to double the lead. Maharashtra continued to hold sway and added two more goals through Linekar Machado (46th minute) and Rohan Shukla (56th minute) to round off the winning tally, while Gujarat scored a consolation goal through Musamiyan Syed in the 65th minute.
Results: Maharashtra 4 (Arif Shaikh 7-pen, Mrunal Tandel 10, Linekar Machado 46, Rohan Shukla 56) beat Gujarat 1 (Musamiyan Syed 65).