GOTHIA CUP: MINERVA ACADEMY FC ROUTS LILLESTRØM SK 3 BY 13-1 TO CONTINUE WINNING STREAK

Face2News/Chandigarh

Indian football club Minerva Academy FC continued its unstoppable run in the Boys-12 category of the Gothia Cup (Youth World Cup) by crushing Norway’s Lillestrøm SK 3 with a massive 13-1 victory. In a completely one-sided encounter played on the pitches of Sweden, Minerva’s young forwards tore through the Lillestrøm defense, which collapsed like a pack of cards.

From the opening whistle to the final second, the Indian club maintained absolute dominance on the pitch and unleashed a non-stop flurry of goals.
Minerva Academy adopted an aggressive approach right from the start, giving the opposition no time to settle down.

In the very first minute of the game, Lalsangzuala scored a brilliant field goal to open Minerva’s account. Before Lillestrøm could recover from the early shock, Ningthoujam Laitonjam struck a precise shot in the third minute to make it 2-0. Minerva’s relentless attack continued as Pideimutha Khundrakpam scored another spectacular goal in the seventh minute, extending the team’s lead to 3-0.

Lillestrøm’s Emil August Sundbaum Larsen managed to breach the Minerva defense in the 11th minute to score his team’s first and only goal, bringing the scoreline to 3-1. However, before the opposition could even finish celebrating, Ningthoujam struck again in the exact same minute to complete his brace. Following this, Ashwin Narayanan scored in the 15th minute to ensure Minerva went into the half-time break with a commanding 5-1 lead.

Instead of a turnaround in the second half, things turned into a nightmare for Lillestrøm as Minerva’s players functioned like a well-oiled goal-scoring machine. In the 22nd minute, Hmar scored his second goal of the match, and just a minute later, in the 23rd minute, Philemon Lhapa found the back of the net to put the team ahead 7-1. The field then became a stage for Kipgen, who opened his account in the 27th minute. He followed it up with another goal in the 28th minute, while Wangkhem also scored in the same minute to push the score to 10-1.

Ashwin Narayanan scored his second goal of the match in the 32nd minute. A Lillestrøm player received a yellow card in the 37th minute, after which Kipgen struck his third goal in the 38th minute to complete a magnificent hat-trick. Just a minute before the final whistle, Narzary hammered home the 13th goal for Minerva in the 39th minute. With this historic 13-1 triumph, Minerva Academy FC has strongly asserted its championship credentials in the tournament.