KOLKATA: The 72nd
Santosh Trophy enters its business end on Friday with defending champions Bengal taking in Karnataka at
Howrah Stadium
and Mizoram facing Kerala at
Mohun Bagan ground in the semifinals.
Bengal, 32-time winners, expectedly progressed to the last-four stage but as the second-placed team from Group A behind Kerala. The hosts started well with convincing wins over Manipur and Maharashtra but went off the boil thereafter. They managed to edge past Chandigarh by a solitary goal before going down to Kerala in final group-league game when they decided to rest a few key players.
The likes of Tirthankar Sarkar, Jiten Murmu, Sumit Das, Krishna Biswas will be back in starting XI but there is no doubt that
Ranjan Chowdhury
’s men will have to pull up their socks if they are to get the better of Karnataka, who have punched above their weight in the tournament. P Muralidharan’s men topped Group B ahead of the more fancied outfits like Mizoram, Goa and Punjab and reached the last-four stage after a decade.
The other semifinal will see a traditional powerhouse and five-time champions Kerala coming up against Mizoram who are the most improved side in Indian football. The tiny North-Eastern state has made the semifinal for the third time in the last five editions.
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