Guwahati: Trailing by an early goal in a match they couldn’t afford to lose, Odisha salvaged a draw against Railways in their Santosh Trophy final round Group B encounter at Assam’s Silpathar Stadium on Thursday.
Subrata Murmu handed Railways the lead with a third-minute strike. Desperate to equalise and avoid elimination, Odisha found a way to break open the Railways defence in the 66th minute with Arpan Lakra finding the mark.
Odisha’s first goal in the competition helped them take their tally to 2 points from 4 games.
With one match remaining for all six teams in the group, Odisha find themselves at the bottom. But as four teams will qualify for the quarterfinals, Odisha still have a chance to progress, although it’s not entirely in their hands.
Odisha will have to beat Punjab in their final group league fixture on January 31, which will push their points aggregate to 5. They will also have to depend on the Services versus Kerala result, and hope that Services don’t win that game.
Odisha are winless so far, having lost to Meghalaya and Kerala by identical margins of 0-1, and managed draws with Services (0-0) and Railways (1-1).
