Narainpur (Chhattisgarh), May 20 (IANS): Karnataka beat Manipur 1-0 to reach the finals of the inaugural Swami Vivekananda U20 Men’s National Football Championship Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama Ground, here on Monday.

In what was a nervy encounter with both teams’ defense playing a vital role, it was Karnataka who opened the scoring in just the 14th minute of the game.

The breakthrough came when Manipur gave away a penalty which was calmly put into the back of the net by Saikhom Borish Singh giving Manipur goalie, Paonam Charansingh little to no chance of saving the ball.

They will now turn their attention to the second semi-final to see who they will be facing in the final of the tournament that is due to be played later on in the day.

The Karnataka team’s defense has to be given their flowers as they are yet to concede a goal in the knockout stages of the team. Their quarterfinal against Bengal had a similar theme to tonight’s encounter as they won 1-0 with Borish Singh being the goal scorer in that game too.

The final of the Swami Vivekananda U20 Men’s National Football Championship will be played on Wednesday.