Karnataka play Services tomorrow in a decisive encounter

State boys take on the strong Services team in their final match tomorrow 4 pm Bangalore Football Stadium. Both teams are on same point after two wins. Karnataka is better on goal difference (+7) than their opponent (+4). Services, in their last match against Telengana, were stretched till the last minute. 

Only one team from each group will qualify for the Santosh Trophy final round.  Should the match ends in a stalemate, Karnataka would qualify by virtue of better goal difference. 

Coach Muralidharan is not ready to bank on the advantage of goal difference. Playing for a draw is always risky, we will go for straight win. 

State team created several chances in their last game, however missed scoring opportunities on most of the occasion. Something that will worry coach. 

Vignesh to lead state in Santosh Trophy

The selectors finally declared the team for the South Zone qualifying round for 72nd Santosh Trophy, the yearly Senior National football championship. Matches will be held at Bangalore Football Stadium, from January 17 to 22. 

Experienced campaigner Vignesh G will be captaining the team. Vignesh currently plays for Bangalore Super Division team Ozone FCB he will be assisted by Sunil Kumar from Students Union. Also, Vignesh captained last year in Santosh Trophy. Karnataka played their qualifiers at Calicut, Kerala, where the team ended their campaign in a disastrous note. 

Other than the delay in declaring the final squad of 20 players, what is interesting this year’s number of standby players, which is ten in compare to four from last year. 

Team 

Shain Khan CP (Bengaluru FC), Abhishek Das (Ozone FC), Sunil Kumar M (Vice Captain)
(Student Union FC), Shafeel PP (B'lore Independents), Anto Rashith (Ozone FC), Leon Augustine (Bengaluru FC), Vignesh G (Captain- Ozone FC), Solaimalai (South United FC), Shamanth (Student Union), Ramesh B (B'lore Eagles), Shahabaaz Khan (Bengaluru FC), Edwin Rosario (B'lore Independent), Liton Shil (MEG), Shashi Kumar V (Students Union FC) Rajesh S (RWF), Keith Raymond Stephen (South United), Azaruddin SK (Bengaluru FC), Amoes (Student Union) Vignesh D (Ozone FCB), Anup Theres Raj (Ozone FC)

Stand Bye
Shreyas (Mysore), John Peter (Bangalore Independent),  Shaik Muzeeb (MEG), Myron Mendes (Bengaluru FC), Sudharshan Lokur (Belgaum District), Franklin Amalraj (Young Challenger), Akshay N (Student Union), Sharath Mohan (Student Union), Abhishek Ramesh (Bangalore Independent) , Satish Kumar (South United) 
Officials

Manager M Kumar
Chief Coach - P Muralidharan
Coach - Harish VK
Goal Keeping Coach - SS Shahi
Physiotherapist - Ayethapalli Prasad

Fixture - 72nd Santosh Trophy South Zone Qualifiers

Group A	Group B
Karnataka Telangana Services Pondicherry	Kerala Andhra Pradesh Tamil Nadu Andaman Nicobar

* Andaman and Nicobar have withdrawn their team from the competition

Fixture 

Wednesday, 17 January, 2018, 1:15 PM: Karnataka 5 (Rajesh S-7', 69', Liton Shil-18', 68', Shahabaaz Khan-83') vs. Telangana 0

Wednesday, 17 January, 2018, 4 PM: Services 4 (Arjun Tudu-20', Gautam Singh-72', Nanish Singh-59', Saji P-86'[OG]) vs. Pondicherry 1 (Kartikeyan G-9') 

Thursday, 18 January, 2018, 4 PM: Kerala 7 (Sajith Poulose-3', Rahul KP-13', 49', Singampalli Vinod-16[OG], Vibin Thomas-53', Afdal VK-63' 75') vs. Andhra Pradesh 0 

Friday, 19 January, 2018, 1:15 PM: Pondicherry 0 vs. Karnataka 2 (Shahabaaz Khan-64', Amoes-89')

Friday, 19 January, 2018, 4 PM: Telangana 1 (Kumar Dhanala-59') vs. Services 2 (Nanish Singh-25' Laishram Herojit Singh- 89')

Saturday, 20 January, 2018, 4 PM: Andhra Pradesh 0 vs. Tamil Nadu 1 (Vijay Nagappan-57')

Sunday, 21 January, 2018, 1:15 PM: Telangana 4 (Madan Kumar-14' 64', Syed Abid Hussain Rizvi -18', 60') vs. Pondicherry 0 

Sunday, 21 January, 2018, 4 PM: Karnataka 4 (Azaruddin SK-10'[P]), Rajesh S-49', 72', Solaimalai-89') vs. Services 1 (Laishram Herojit Singh-86')

Monday, 22 January, 2018, 4 PM: Tamil Nadu vs. Kerala