Goa beat a strong Kerala by a solitary goal in the concluding round of the Group A league at its home in SAG Benaulim Football Ground on Tuesday to progress to the final round of the senior National football championship for the Santosh Trophy.
Goa remained unbeaten to tally 10 points from three wins and a draw and topped the Group A standings.
Kerala also progressed to the next stage with nine points gained from three wins.
Manipur (15 points) and Uttar Pradesh (12) won their respective Group C matches to secure the top two spots from the group while Assam (15) and Railways (12) progressed from Group D as the top two teams.
The results: Group A: Goa 1 (Trijoy Savio Dias 57) bt Kerala 0; Gujarat 4 (Dharmesh Parmar 6, Chinkhosiam Dimngel 45+1, Tufel Hingora 79, 90+4) bt Chhattisgarh 0
Group C: Manipur 3 (W. Sadananda Singh 22, N. Pacha Singh 37, Samson 87) bt Jharkhand 0; Tamil Nadu 1 (Kamalesh P. 32) drew with Nagaland 1 (Kevisanyu Peseyie 61); Uttar Pradesh 4 (Yashraj Thapa 10, Salamuddin Khand 28-og, Krishna Kumar 47, Himanshu Rai 66) bt Madhya Pradesh 1 (Akash Rai 89).
Group D: Chandigarh 2 (Kunal Singh 24, Sunny Dahiya 35) bt Rajasthan 0; Assam 7 (Milan Basumatary 3, 13, Joydeep Gogoi 12, Dipu Mirdha 34, 65, Arjun Mardi 37, 76) bt Himachal Pradesh 0; Railways 1 (Shabaz Pathan 43) bt Bihar 0.
Group E: Mizoram 5 (Lalkhawpuimawia 19, 44, 89, 90+5, Lalbiakthanga Hmar 84) bt Daman and Diu 0; Services 3 (Christopher Kamei 14, Samir Murmu 43, 45+4) bt Sikkim 0; Uttarakhand 7 (Ayush Bisht 6, 45, Hitik Walia 35, Anuj Rawat 45+4, Yash Bisht 55, Shailendra Negi 74, 90+2) bt Pondicherry 1 (Rajesh 9).
Group F: Lakshadweep 1 (Abdul Hassan 19) bt Andaman and Nicobar 0; Telangana 1 (T. Dharaneswar Reddy 90+2) bt Tripura 0; Maharashtra 6 (Pavan Vijay Mali 15, Himanshu Patil 25, Advait 55, 61, 90+5, Johnson Mathews 67) bt Andhra Pradesh 0.
