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20th January 2019, Palghar: As we are nearing towards the final stages of Sub-Junior Girls Championship, the competitiveness and intensity are heating up here at Palghar District.
Pune District and Nagpur District played out a mouth-watering semi-final clash where the latter triumphed in the penalty shootout, whereas, Kolhapur District and Mumbai District won their respective games to set up an anticipating semi-final encounter on Monday.
1st Semi-Final: Pune 3-3 Nagpur (Nagpur won 5-4 via penalties)
WIFA Inter-District Sub-Junior Girls Championship 2019 (Palghar)
Semi-Final: Pune (Purva Gaikwad 13′ & 29′ and Anika Khanolkar 52′) 3-3 Nagpur (Kajal Warthi 24′, Muskan Upadhyay 26′ and Sneha Uikey 41′) – Nagpur won 5-4 via penalties
In what turned out to be the best match of the Championship so far, Pune and Nagpur played out a thriller.
A fired-up Pune District took the lead through Purva Gaikwad’s penalty before Nagpur scored twice within two minutes, courtesy Kajal Warthi and Muskan Upadhyay’s one goal apiece to give Nagpur a 2-1 lead.
Purva quickly responded with another goal to level the score just before the half-time. It was nothing but an end-to-end display which put the spectators at the edge of their seats in Palghar.
The second-half saw both the outfits scoring one each through Sneha Uikey and Anika Khanolkar which took the match into penalties.
In the shootout, Nagpur held their nerves and edged out Pune 5-4 to book their place in the final.
3rd Quarter-Final: Kolhapur (Sanika Patil 24′ and Samruddhi Katkole 34′, 36′, & 48′) 4-0 Thane
After Sanika Patil’s opening strike in the first-half, Samruddhi Katkole took the match beyond Thane’s reach after completing a 14-minute hat-trick in the second half. An impressive display by Kolhapur’s Girls to set up an exciting semi-final clash against Mumbai District.
4th Quarter-Final: Mumbai (Sai Sankhe 3′, 11′, & 27′, Priyanka Sujeesh 6′ & 18′, Mehak Lobo 1′ and Ananya Biswas 38′) 7-0 Nashik
Mumbai District outplayed Nashik 7-0 to execute a resounding win. Sai Sankhe scored a hat-trick while Priyank Sujeesh (2), Mehak Lobo, and Ananya Biswas also got on the scoresheet.
Mumbai is the defending champions and they have surely sent a strong message to the remaining teams as they hope to defend their title.
