Maharashtra women’s and men’s team end campaign in National Championships

Maharashtra’s (WIFA) women and men’s teams suffered defeats and made their exits from the AIFF National Football Championships 2021.

The State women lost to Mizoram 4-1 in the quarterfinal of the Senior Women’s Championship at the EMS Corporation Stadium in Kozhikode on Sunday while the Maharashtra men’s team crashed out in the initial phase, losing to Rajasthan 1-0 in the concluding Group-B encounter at the at the Poornima University ground in Jaipur.

Mizoram strikers Elizabeth Vanlalmawii and Lalnunsiami, both struck a brace of goals each to seal their win, while former junior international Karen Pais netted Maharashtra’s lone goal.

The Mizoram outfit started aggressively and asserted their dominance over the Maharashtrian team and snatched an early lead through Elizabeth in the 10th minute before Lalnunsiami doubled the lead in the 24th minute.

Maharashtra showed signs of fighting back when Karen found the target in the 47th minute. But Maharashtra’s hopes of getting back into the match, was dashed with Lalnunsiami netting her second goal to give Mizoram a two goal cushion (3-1 lead).

In the men’s match, Rajasthan did well to match Maharashtra and scored a shock goal in injury time to snatch a narrow victory and qualify for the next phase of the competition.