BHUBANESWAR 13-Jan-2016
Odisha’s campaign in the 21st Senior Women National Football Championship ended on a sad note as they suffered a 4-0 drubbing at the hands of Railways in the semifinals at Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh today. Railway will take on defending champions Manipur in the final on January 15. Manipur beat Haryana 4-2 in the other semifnal of the day.
Odisha reached the last-four stage by winning three matches and losing one in the final round. After beating Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Goa for a hat-trick of wins, Odisha went down to Manipur 0-4. However, both Manipur and Odisha qualified for the last-four stage, which will take place on January 13.
Young international striker Pyari Xaxa did the bulk of scoring for Odisha, pumping in seven goals in three games, including all five against Uttar Pradesh. Sakina Nesa followed her with a brace. Odisha qualified for the final round after emerging East Zone (Group-A) champions recently at Kalyani in West Bengal. Led by Karishma Oram, Odisha won all three of their zonal league matches, trouncing Chhattisgarh 17-0, Sikking 5-0 and West Bengal 2-0.
RESULTS (FINAL ROUND):
Jan 2: Odisha (Pyari Xaxa 27th, 57th, 61st, 66th and 74th) beat Uttar Pradesh 5-0.
Jan 4: Odisha beat (Pyari Xaxa 35min; Sakina Nesa 60th, 89th; Jasmani Samad 95th) Tamil Nadu 4-1.
Jan 8: Odisha (Pyari Xaxa 25th) beat Goa 1-0.
Jan 10: Manipur beat Odisha 4-0.
Jan13: Railways (Kamla Devi 18th, Manpreet Kaur 69th, 71st; Ngoubi Devi 87th) beat Odisha 4-0.
