Ten-man Kerala [Images] fired a late winner to score a 2-1 victory against Karnataka and book a semi-final berth in the Santosh Trophy national football competition in Gurgaon on Thursday.

Kerala, seeking their sixth title triumph, showed true character in making to the last four as they had to play the last quarter of an hour with only 10 men.

K S Joby and Xavier Vijay Kumar found the net for Kerala and Karnataka respectively before N P Pradeep secured the points in the match, also marked by two freak goals which were a result of errors from the custodians.

Karnataka, who were out of contention for a berth in the last four after losing their first two encounters, gave a much better display and were in fact the better team in the opening exchanges.

They had an opportunity in the eighth minute when neat approach play from Xavier resulted in D Raju finding the time and space to shoot, but his weak attempt was easily held by Kerala keeper Jean Christian.

Einstein Abraham Manual was another lively player for Karnataka who repeatedly got behind the opposition defence.

However, Kerala took the lead in the 16th minute when Karnataka keeper N Venkatesh Sr misread the flight of a speculative cross from Joby and came off his line to collect it. To his horror, the ball swerved in and went into the net without any further touch.

Kerala could have doubled the lead six minutes later when a centre from the right flank by Indian team member N P Pradeep was poked just wide by Mohammad Rafi.

Karnataka came close to equalising in the 32nd minute when a corner was headed just wide by Xavier.

But they got a stroke of luck two minutes later when Jean Christian fumbled a Xavier corner and put it into his own net.

The goal seemed to have shocked the Keralites and they stepped on the offensive with Pradeep bringing out a good save from the Karnataka custodian.

Karnataka could have gone ahead just before the break when D Raju got behind the defence but his shot missed the target.

The second half was much the same with Kerala trying to impose themselves on the game and Karnataka playing on the counter-attack.

But the match took a turn in the 78th minute when Kerala substitute Ebin Rose was given his marching orders for a second bookable offence after he committed a dangerous tackle on Sunil Kumar.

But instead of holding back, Kerala surged ahead and got the rewards in the 86th minute when B V Pradeep brought down R Rajesh in the penalty area with Pradeep coolly slotting home the spot kick.

Despite the win, Kerala coach K Bharathan was not happy with the performance of his team.

"The boys were not at their best. They could not control the ball in this match," he said.

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