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Punjab beat Tamil Nadu 3-1 to book a place in the final against hosts Bengal for the 64th Santosh Trophy tournament. Balwant Singh and Maninder Singh struck early for the eight time champions to lead 2-0 at the half time mark. In the second half Balwant Singh doubled his tally with a 56th minute goal. Elamurugan pulled one back for Tamil Nadu in the dying minutes of the match, but that was not enough to stop Punjab from setting up a clash with Bengal in the final.
In the other semi-final Bengal finally got their revenge as they beat Goa 4-3 on penalties to book a place in the finals. This will the 42nd final for the twenty-nine time champions. Earlier in the game, Goa broke the deadlock with a 20th minute strike from Milagres Gonsalves who found the net from a Denzil Franco header inside the box. The Goans dominated the first half, however, things changed quickly as Bengal piled up the pressure with a series of attacks, but Covan Lawrence and Felix D'souza were in no mood to let anything past them.
Bengal finally levelled with a 84th minute strike from Robin Singh who went past two defenders before striking home with a left foot kick to take the match into extra-time. The scores were level at the end of extra-time resulting in the shootout.
Godwin Franco, Cavin Lobo and Adil Khan converted the first three shots before John Dias's effort hit the post and Nicholas Rodrigues's bleak strike was saved by Bengal keeper Abhra Mandal.
For Bengal, the first shot by Rajiv Ghosh was saved by Goan keeper Felix D'souza without much effort. However, Snehashish Chakraborty, Souvik Chakraborty and Sheikh Azim converted the next three shots to level the scoreline at 3-3 and keep the host's chances alive before Denson Devadas scored the winner to take Bengal into the finals.
The final will be played on Sunday 8th, August at the Salt Lake City Stadium.