Yupia (Arunachal Pradesh), Feb 28 (PTI) Kerala ended hosts Arunachal Pradesh's hopes of making it to the knockout stage of National Football Championships for the Santosh Trophy with a 2-0 win here on Wednesday.

Forward Muhammed Ashiq S (35th minute) and substitute Arjun V (52nd) netted one in each half to win the match for Kerala.

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The 2021-22 Santosh Trophy champions thus gave a major boost to their chances of making it to the knockout stage. They now have seven points from four matches.

With just one point from four matches, Arunachal's hopes of making it to the top four positions in Group A went up in smokes.

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Meanwhile, Services inched closer to quarterfinal spot after their 2-0 win over Assam in another Group A match.

Thingnam Bidhyasagar Singh (44th) and P Christopher Kamei (50th) scored on either side of the half-time break to hand Services a comfortable win.

Kamei's goal, in particular, was a rather unusual one, as it came off an indirect free-kick inside the penalty box after Assam goalkeeper Birkhang Daimary was adjudged to have handled the ball from a back-pass.

With the entire Assam team standing on the goal line, Kamei smashed the ball over the array of heads to bulge the top netting of the goal.

After the win, Services accumulated nine points from four games, while Assam remained on six points.

Assam will next face Goa on March 1.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)