Despite leading by 1-0 for most of the regulation time, Tripura Girls failed to hold on to the advantage and was eventually knocked out of the under-17 girls’ football tournament held in Bihar in sudden death.
The match was delayed by nearly two hours from the scheduled time on Thursday due to dense fog.
In the match against Tamil Nadu held at the Jyoti Prakash Stadium in Bihar, the State girls’ team started playing attacking football from the beginning to ensure a berth in the quarter-finals.
The state team kept the pressure on Tamil Nadu’s defense and scored a goal in the 10th minute of the match. Receiving a through ball from Tania Majumdar, Binita Sinha fired a shot that found the goal and put the State team ahead by one goal.
After that, Binita, Shreya Deb, and Punamadita Debbarma wasted three more easy chances. The game was reaching the final stage and Tamil Nadu players, in a desperate bid to score increased pressure on Tripura’s goal mouth.
As a Tamil Nadu footballer’s shot from outside Tripura’s box hit Sonia Sinha’s hand, the referee rightly awarded a penalty. Tamil Nadu equalized from the spot kick.
As the match remained tied at 1-1 in regulation time, a penalty shot out started. Both teams scored four goals each in the penalty shootout paving the way for sudden death.
Tripura lost the match 6-5 to Tamil Nadu in sudden death and was knocked out of the tournament
After the match, a disappointed Tripura coach Sujon Sarkar rued the missed opportunities and said over the phone from Bihar, “A certain victory slipped out of our hands and we were knocked out of the tournament. We should have won the match in regulation time if we had not missed the scoring opportunities. It is hard to believe that we were out of the tournament even after playing with dominance all the time.”