Nagaland emerged victorious in their first match at the ongoing 77th National Football Championship for Santosh Trophy 2023-24 played at Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh on Sunday. Nagaland blanked Madhya Pradesh 3-0 in their first match played at Gaur City Sports Stadium.
Nagaland is in group-C along with five other teams including Manipur, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. While Nagaland, Tamil Nadu and Jharkhand make up team-A of the group, Manipur, Madhya Pradesh and UP make up team-B.
On Sunday’s match, team Nagaland’s captain, Sanyem Konyak netted the first goal. Later teammate Yhoto Lohe doubled the score which remained as the only goals till the first half. Later in the second half, Seninlo Kath contributed the third goal.
Nagaland will next play against Jharkhand on Tuesday at 8 a.m. as members of the group battle it out to be the top team to qualify for the pre-quarter rounds. In a telephonic conversation, head coach Roko Angami informed that the players performed well in their debut match and hoped that they would continue to play better in their upcoming games.
He informed that lodging was fine however, they were being provided with only vegetarian menus so far. He requested for prayer support for the people since the event was one of the biggest and most prestigious tournaments in the country.