Andhra Pradesh win comfortably in Swami Vivekananda U20 NFC

Narainpur (Chhattisgarh)[India], April 14 (ANI): Andhra Pradesh registered a 4-1 win against Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu in Group F of the Swami Vivekananda U-20 Men's National Football Championship 2025, at the Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama Ground in Narainpur, Chhattisgarh, on Sunday.

The winners led 3-1 at halftime. Marappa Gowda Sethu Madhav (8'), B Bharat Kumar Reddy (37'), B Veera Sai Harsha Vardhan (43'), and Badri Surendra Babu (72') scored for Andhra Pradesh. Nikhil Nayak (32') was the lone scorer for the losing side.

While Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu are eliminated from the competition after suffering back-to-back defeats in the three-team group, Andhra Pradesh, despite the victory, is left with a rather challenging task ahead in order to qualify for the quarter-finals.

Defending champions Delhi are the other team in the group, who, too, have bagged three points after a whopping 14-0 win over Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. While all Delhi need now is a draw in their last group league outing to make the last eight, only an outright victory can clear Andhra Pradesh's path to the next level.

Andhra Pradesh struck early. In the eighth minute, Sethu Madhav found the target through a jungle of legs in the rival box. Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu equalised in the 32nd minute through Nikhil Nayak off a free kick. Their joy, however, was short-lived as Bharat Kumar Reddy and Harsha Vardhan scored twice before half-time to take charge of the proceedings.

Substitute Surendra Babu increased the lead in the second half to virtually put the game to bed. (ANI)

(The story has come from a syndicated feed and has not been edited by the Tribune Staff.)