Hyderabad: Telangana boys have been crowned champions of the Futsal Under 13 National championship held at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Kochi.
The championship was organised by Futsal Association of India (FAI). The Telangana team kept a clean sheet, defeating all their opponents in the tournament.
In the final, Maharashtra took an early lead, within first 5 minutes of the match. However, Telangana fought back and equalised via Aryan R. Thereafter, both teams could not break the deadlock, taking the game to penalty shootout. Telangana converted all their penalties thanks to Lokesh V, Vamshi Krishna and Pratham Joshi while their goalkeeper Dhanvi Tejas saved two penalty kicks by Maharashtra to trigger celebrations.
Earlier in the semifinals, Telangana defeated Gujarat 3-0 as Jason Powell scored twice and Piyush T.P. netted once.
In Group stages, Telangana defeated Maharashtra 1-0 courtesy V. Lokesh’s goal; drew the second match with Assam; defeated Delhi 5-1 with Aryan R scoring a hat-trick followed by one goal each by Akash Pradhan and V. Lokesh. In final group match, Telangana defeated Andhra Pradesh 3-0, thanks Kevin Peddi’s brace and a goal from V. Lokesh.
