Murugappa Semi-Finals Set: Navy Beat Malaysia 4-2, Army Through as Railways and PNB Share Eight Goals
The group stage ended the way it deserved to end. Loud, messy, and settled in the final minutes.
Indian Navy are through to the semi-finals. They only needed a draw against Malaysia’s junior team on Thursday, and they made sure of it early, winning 4-2 at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium in Chennai.
It could have been a nervous night. Sushil Dhanwar hit the post in the sixth minute, and two minutes later Bhavin Kushalappa broke the deadlock. Malaysia answered in the 27th minute through Muhamad Harith, and for three minutes the game had an edge to it. Then K. Selvaraj restored Navy’s lead in the 30th minute, deflecting in a Sanjit Toppo drag-flick, and Navy never looked back.
Pawan Rajbhar made it 3-1 in the 36th minute with a flick into the top of the net. Nitesh stretched it to 4-1 in the 43rd. Muhammad Aizat pulled one back for Malaysia shortly after, but that was as close as it got. Navy finished second in Pool B, behind BPCL, and their reward is a semi-final against the defending champions.
That is the tie of the round. Indian Railways topped Pool A, and they do not give up trophies easily. Railways won this tournament last year, beating Navy 3-1 in the final, and now the two meet again with a place in another final on the line. Navy will fancy it. They have already drawn 5-5 with BPCL in this tournament, so nobody is going to outscore them without a fight.
The other semi-final is BPCL against Indian Army. BPCL won Pool B and were already through before Thursday. Army got there the hard way, and they owe PNB a thank-you note they will never send.
PNB needed to beat Railways by seven goals to leapfrog Army on goal difference. Seven. They very nearly made a game of it. Sheshe Gowda scored twice for Railways, with Lovepreet Singh and Jaswinder Singh adding the others, but PNB kept coming back, and Naveen Antil completed a hat-trick in the final minutes as the game finished 4-4.
A hat-trick, eight goals, and still not enough. PNB’s late surge fell well short of the margin they needed, and Army go through instead. That is brutal arithmetic, but it is also the tournament in one game: Railways could not be beaten, PNB could not be kept down, and Army watched it all from the sidelines and qualified anyway.
Army earned their place earlier in the week too. They drew 2-2 with IOCL on Wednesday, coming back twice, and that point is what PNB had to overhaul. It held.
So Saturday in Chennai is Navy against Railways, and BPCL against Army. The final follows on Sunday. Four teams left, two of them department sides who know exactly what this trophy means, one unbeaten pool winner, and one Navy side that has already shown it can score its way out of trouble. Bring it on.
Both Thursday results were reported by Sports Now.
Related links:
- https://sportscursor.com/murugappa-gold-cup-semifinal-race-pnb-seven-goals-malaysia-navy-29-october-2026/
- https://sportscursor.com/murugappa-gold-cup-day-7-bpcl-navy-5-5-tamil-nadu-malaysia-iocl-army-28-october-2026/
- https://sportscursor.com/murugappa-malaysia-juniors-2-1-sai-ncoe-bhopal-28-october-2026/
- https://sportscursor.com/live/
- https://sportscursor.com/latest-news/
