CHALAKUDY (THRISSUR), APRIL 5: Former champion Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh moved into the pre-quarter finals from Cluster-VI and V in the 56th Senior National Football Championship for the Santosh Trophy, here, on Wednesday.In their last league match, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh shared points after their match ended in a goalless draw.With this match, Uttar Pradesh had accumulated four points from as many matches from this three-team league and took their appointed place in the pre-quarter final, where they will meet Karnataka on Apr 7. Madhya Pradesh has two points from two drawn matches, while the third team Assam ended with just one point.Earlier, former champion Karnataka got off to a flying start when they crushed Jammu and Kashmir 10-2 and qualified for the pre-quarter from this two-team league.The highlight of the match was a brilliant hat-trick by striker Peter who scored 4 goals.The UP-MP encounter saw an even contest. The teams created handful of openings and eked out lively football despite pools of water on the groud, due to a suden downpour just one hour before the start of the match.UP had to undergo a frustrating period in the last 10 minutes, seeing all their efforts coming to nought. The team was reduced to 10, after one of their defenders received two yellow cards, however, they rose to great heights to thwart MP's attackers in the closing stages of the game. Earlier, the match got off to a rousing start with Madhya Pradesh straight away going for offensive and even could have taken the lead with a little bit of luck, but UP's goalkeeper Akhlesh Har jumped high to tip the ball over.They had yet another chance in the 17th minute but Pavan Katyal's left footer narrowly missed the target and at the other end, Uttar Pradesh squandered a golden chance in the 21st minute. Striker Rias Ahmad Jafri who had possession, lobbed it into the centre where Ajay Singh Rawat instead of just tapping the ball into the cage, choose to drive over the horizontal from close.Thereafter, the ball kept moving from one end to another with both the frontmen fumbling either yielding possession to the defenders or driving stratight to the goalkeepers.On changing ends, Uttar Pradesh increased the pace of the game and twice substitute Vijay Pal Yadav messed up chances.Meanwhile, UP received a jolt when Vijay Pal Yadav was given his second yellow card after an off the ball foul on Nobin Singh. However, the team did well with ten players and thwarted their rival's attempt to score.MP requiring a win to qualify went all out in the closing stages of the match, but UP defence and Akhilesh came to their teams rescue with timely interceptions.With eight minutes left for the match, a booming 25-yarder by Jatin Singh Bisht of UP looked all the way a goal, but an alert Rajan foiled it much to the relief of the MP team.Thursday's matches: Maharashtra VS Haryana. Indian Railways VS Punjab.
