Defending champions Manipur will be hoping to repeat their historic Santosh Trophy triumph when the 59th IOC National Football Championship begins in Delhi on Thursday.

Manipur, who won their maiden title at home in 2002, have arrived with a high quality line-up, with players like Tomba Singh, who was last season's best player, Renedy Singh and Manitombi Singh to name a few.

But the team from the north-east will have to overcome a formidable challenge from states like Bengal, Goa and Kerala to annex the prestigious title for a second time.

Manipur, together with last edition's runners-up Kerala, Services and Goa, are seeded directly into the quarter-final league and will play their first match against the winner of Cluster VI on October 21.

"We have arrived with a strong team and we expect to provide a stiff challenge to the top teams," Manipur coach M Ratan Kumar Singh said.

The coach said Manipur's main problem this time is lack of enough practice as a team.

"Most of the players were busy with club football and so we hardly got any time to practice together," he said.

"That's why we arrived early so that we can have some more practice sessions."

Ratan is also worried about the fitness of his star players, some of whom are carrying minor injuries.

"Manitombi, Dharamjit Singh and Rajesh Metei are not fully fit," he said.

As far as young talent is concerned, the coach is looking forward to a fine performance from striker Danny Chisru.

Among other heavyweights, all eyes will be on 29-time winners Bengal, who last won the title in Chennai in 1998-99.

This year Bengal will start from the qualifying round where they are clubbed with minnows Mizoram and Andhra Pradesh in Cluster I.

Once they advance to the quarter-finals, they will take on Services and the winner of Cluster IV (most probably Maharashtra).

Maharashtra and Punjab are the other two big teams playing in the first round.

Punjab will open their campaign against Chhattisgarh in Cluster V on Friday. The other teams in the Cluster are Meghalaya and Tripura.

Maharashtra are expected to face little resistance in their march towards the quarter-finals, clubbed as they are with Uttar Pradesh, Arunachal and Jharkhand in Cluster IV.

Another team that has arrived in Delhi with a steely determination is Karnataka.

"Our team is a blend of youth and experience," said team coach S Krishnaji Rao.

"Six members of the team, led by Xavier Vijaykumar, are from the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited," he said.

In the pre-quarterfinals, 28 teams have been divided into eight clusters with the cluster winners advancing to the quarter-final league joining Services in Group A, defending champions Manipur in Group B, Kerala in Group C and Goa in Group D.

The other first round matches will be held at Chhatrasal Stadium in Model Town, Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium practice ground and the Thyagaraj Nagar ground, Lodhi Road. The Chhatrasal stadium will also host one of the quarter-final matches.

The winners of Group A and Group C will clash in the first semi-final on October 28 while the winners of B and D will face off in the second semi the next day. The final will be played on October 31.

Hosts Delhi, who last won the title when they hosted the tournament six decades back, will be keen to at least reach the quarter-finals in front of their home supporters.

Clusters:

Cluster I: West Bengal, Mizoram and Andhra Pradesh

Cluster II: Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Delhi

Cluster III: Railways, Chandigarh, Bihar, Uttranchal

Cluster IV: Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Arunachal, Jharkhand

Cluster V: Punjab, Meghalaya, Tripura, Chhatishgarh

Cluster VI: Karnataka, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana

Cluster VII: Orissa, Pondicherry, Sikkim

Cluster VIII: Tamil Nadu, Jammu and Kashmir, Nagaland

Tomorrow's matches:
Railways vs Uttranchal, C III, (Model Town, 1.15 pm); Maharashtra vs Jharkhand, C IV, (Thyagraj, 1.15 pm);. Delhi vs Gujarat, C II (Ambedkar Stadium, 2.45 pm);. Bihar vs Chandigarh, C III, (Model Town, 3.15 pm);. Uttar Pradesh vs Arunachal Pradesh, C IV (Thyagraj, 3.15 pm).