Rabi Hansda, the chief architect behind Bengal's victory in Santosh Trophy after six years was given civic reception by the district administration here today and he was honoured following tribal rituals at his native place in Mongalkote yesterday.
Odisha won both matches in the three-team group to collect six points. They scored 10 goals and conceded two.
Emphasizing that the BJP and the CPI(M) are employing the tools of anger, violence, hatred, and distraction to divide society, Gandhi urged people to stay united.
The hosts now have seven Santosh Trophy titles to their name, and it was their first victory on home soil since 1993. West Bengal reached their 46th final overall, but they were unable to add to their record 32 titles, and Kerala maintained their recent dominance over West Bengal.
Bengal have now reached the competition's pinnacle 46 times and will look to add to their record tally of 32 Santosh Trophy titles when they face hosts Kerala in the final on Monday.
The Santosh Trophy is about to enter the semifinals, and IM Vijayan, widely regarded as one of the country's greatest footballers, was taken aback by the excitement surrounding the tournament.
The win meant West Bengal joined Kerala in the last four. The scoreline could have been much more emphatic if not for the profligacy displayed by the Bengal players throughout the game.
Gift Raikhan, coach of the Manipur team had instructed his team to go all out for the win in order to go through to the semi-finals and it is exactly what they did. Three first half goals seemed to have done the job for them early on itself with Lunminlen Haokip running the show.
"AIFF will be monitoring the situation of the coronavirus outbreak and decide on the fresh dates," the federation wrote in an official letter to state federations.
Delhi's Ayush Adhikari, who displayed his talent at the 2018-19 Santosh Trophy by top-scoring with 6 goals, was given the Best Player (male) award for the year 2018-19.
