champions Nagpur from Group A and Mumbai and Pune from Group B stormed into semi-finals of the ongoing WIFA State Inter-District Football Championship with a game to spare, on Saturday. Playing their second match of Group B at NDFA’s Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Football Stadium in Suyog Nagar, hosts Nagpur piped Amravati 3-2 in an exciting encounter. Nagpur will play Kolhapur in their last league match on Sunday evening under lights. Kolhapur (4 points) defeated Chandrapur 8-0 to stay in contention. Amravati, who have one draw and a loss need huge win over Chandrapur on Sunday morning to fancy their chances of reaching last four from Group A. From Group B, Mumbai made it to last four after a 4-0 win over Raigad.

 

This was their second victory. Pune beat Aurangabad 1-0 to make last four with six points. Nagpur succeeded in taking a two-goal early lead. But they failed to hold that advantage as Amravati bounced back to level the scores. Nagpur surged ahead through Aditya Chandane’s header after he received a cross from Mustejab Ashraf in the 11th minute. Three minutes later, Mohd Owais Ashraf grabbed the advantage to tap the ball into the net after the ball popped out of Amravati goalkeeper Tanveer Laluwale’s hands.

 

Amravati reduced the margin when they scored through an own goal off Nagpur captain Stanley Peter who tried to head the ball away but deflected it into his own net in the 20th minute. Nayan Kanojiya then converted a spot kick in the 62nd minute to draw parity. But as luck would have it, Nagpur earned a penalty in the added time of the second half (80+3) and Peter made no mistake in slotting the ball home to make it 3-2. Results: Kolhapur 8 (Karan Chavan 20th ,49th, Sidhesh Salokhe 26th, 72th, Khurshid Ali (56th, 70th, 80+1, Rohit Jadhav 79th bt Chandrapur 0; Mumbai 3 (Saurabh Nikam 50th, Kamran Ansari 70th, Zeeshan Akhter (80+3) bt Raigad 0; Pune (Harsh Uttekar 11th) bt Aurangabad 0.