After struggling for a serious a part of the 76th Santosh Trophy National soccer championships’ remaining section, defending champion Kerala defeated host Odisha 1-0 in Bhubaneswar on Friday and is now in with an opportunity to journey to Riyadh to play the semifinals.

Nijo Gilbert scored Kerala’s match-winner with a Sixteenth-minute penalty.

Meanwhile, Punjab, which leads the six-team Group-A with 10 factors, brushed apart Goa 3-1 whereas Karnataka drew with Maharashtra 3-3, a end result which has now supplied hope to Kerala.

Karnataka is second within the group with eight factors whereas Kerala has seven and the ultimate set of matches on Sunday will resolve the 2 semifinalists from the group.

The outcomes (Group-A):

Kerala 1 (Nijo Gilbert 16-p) bt Odisha 0; Karnataka 3 (Robin Yadav 45+4-p, P. Ankith 61, Shajan Franklin 9+11) drew with Maharashtra 3 (Johnson Mathews 14, Armash Ansari 55 & 60); Punjab 3 (Nickson Castanha 20-og, Rohit Sheikh 74 & 80) bt Goa 1 (Clencio Pinto 88).