2023-10-10 19:30:00
Wednesday Oct 11, 2023
Benolim (Goa) Kerala makes its debut in Santosh Trophy Football today. Gujarat will be the opponent in the first match of the qualifying round. The match will be played at Benolim Football Ground in Goa at 9 am. The hosts Goa and Chhattisgarh are in Group A of Kerala. A total of 35 teams will play the qualifying round in six groups. The group champions and the top three runners-up will advance to the final round. The final round of matches will be held in Arunachal Pradesh in mid-November. Defending champions Karnataka, runners-up Meghalaya and hosts Arunachal have directly secured final berths. Kerala reached Goa following training for a month at the Calicut University Stadium in Thenipalam. The 2018 champion trainer Sathivan Balan is in charge this time. The captain of the 22-member team is Thiruvananthapuram native KSEB’s Nijo Gilbert. Nijo is Kerala’s spearhead in the middle order. It is the 23-year-old’s third Santhosh trophy. Gujarat will pose a threat to Kerala following defeating Jammu 2-1 in the first match. Coach Sathivan Balan said that all opponents are strong and do not look down on anyone. K Mohammad Azhar will be the goalkeeper. In defense, vice-captain G Sanju, R Shinu and Muhammad Saleem are the main ones. Apart from Nijoy, V Arjun and Abdu Rahim are solid in the middle order. B Naresh and E Sajeesh will be responsible for scoring goals. There are 10 new faces in the team. They will face Jammu and Kashmir on 13th, Chhattisgarh on 15th and Goa on 17th. PK Aziz is the assistant coach and Harshal Rahman is the goalkeeper coach. Goa, the strongest in the group, beat Chhattisgarh by one goal. Read on deshabhimani.com
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