While it was joy and ecstasy for Services in the Santosh Trophy 2023-24 finals, it was doom and gloom for Goa. Despite getting several chances in the first half to draw first blood, the Goans in the finals of the Santosh Trophy 2023-24 were extremely unlucky and had to finish 2nd in this prestigious state tournament in Indian football.
Services clinched their 7th Santosh Trophy title after beating Goa, 1-0 in the all-important finals at the Golden Jubilee Stadium in Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh. It was the solitary goal by PP Shafeel of Services that made sure that they bag the honours in this game.
It wasn’t a very attractive final and it was quite a mundane one. Lacking creativity and energy, the Santosh Trophy 2023-24 finals didn’t quite live up to its billing in Itanagar. But a speciality of this tournament in Arunachal Pradesh was the fact that several people had flocked to the stadiums to watch the finals.
The people of North-East India love their football and this sport runs in the veins of the most traditional football-loving hearts. Be it Manipur, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh or Meghalaya, everyone in North-East India loves playing and watching football.
In the finals of Santosh Trophy 2023-24, it was end-to-end action from both the sides. Both Services and Goa battled hard to find the winner. It was eventually Services who kept their nerves in this high-octane game and registered a fantastic victory.
PP Shafeel grabbed the honours of the only goal of the match in the 67th minute. A pass from Rahul Ramakrishnan and Shafeel took a crack on the goal from a distance. It was a piledriver that outclassed the Goa goalkeeper, Da Silva.
It was the only goal in the match and proved to be the decisive and turning point in this match.
One of the other notable moments in this match was the goal-line clearance from Pradeep Kumar of Services during the injury time of this match. Deeshank of Goa had found the substitute player, Joshua D’Silva and he tried to slot it home and almost was successful.
It did beat the Services goalkeeper but Pradeep Kumar cleared the ball away from the mouth of danger.
Services had first won the Santosh Trophy in 1960-61
The Services football team is one of the most successful sides in this competition. They had first won the Santosh Trophy in 1960-61 and then had to wait for a considerable period of time, before they could win it again.
Services won two back-to-back titles in 2011-12 and then in 2012-13. They again won the title in 2014-15 and 2018-19 before winning it again, this time.
Also read: India Name 35-Member Probable List For FIFA World Cup Qualifiers
