India Secures Semifinal Spot with 2-0 Victory over Nepal in SAFF Championship 2023
India emerged victorious with a 2-0 win against Nepal in their second group stage match of the SAFF Championship 2023. Sunil Chhetri’s remarkable goal and Naorem Mahesh Singh’s crucial role propelled the Indian team to victory. Let’s delve into the key moments of the match and the challenges faced by both teams.
India Breaks the Deadlock
There were smiles and cheers at the end of full time as India beat Nepal 2-0 in their second group match of the 2023 SAFF Championship at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru on Saturday. Both teams were more or less equally matched till right about around the hour mark, Naorem Mahesh Singh launched a blistering counter-attack down the left flank. The Nepal defence, which had stood firm till then, could not match the speed of the breakaway, nor could they keep up with the pace of 38-year-old Sunil Chhetri, who stormed down the middle. Almost on cue, and with perfect precision, Mahesh played a low-cross in for his captain who made no mistake in slotting past his opposite number, Kiran Kumar Limbu, in the Nepal goal.
Around eight minutes later, Sahal Abdul Samad, who hadn’t had the best of matches up until then, broke through the middle and found Chhetri in the middle. The India skipper controlled, made some space and got a shot away. Limbu did manage to get a hand on the shot, and may have thought luck was on his side as the ball came off the crossbar. But Mahesh had the poacher’s instinct to follow up and head home the rebound to put India up 2-0.
The youth and spirt of the Nepal team seemed to bamboozle the depth of the Indian team enough that the score remained goalless at half-time. Both teams went into the dressing rooms in different moods – Nepal with the belief of possibly toppling the hosts and India with much work to be done.
India’s Struggles and Chhetri’s Brilliance
As the Indian team led the fans in chants on both sides of the stadium, there was no hiding the fact that the opening goal came with a lot of relief, and that the 2-0 win was not as comfortable as the scoreline would suggest. It leads to the question – why did it take the hosts so long to score the opening goal?
The fact that Chhetri was the scorer of the first goal, his 91st international goal, and the initiator of the second should certainly please Indian fans, but should also cause worry. Despite a relatively solid performance from what seemed like an Indian team testing the depth of its squad, it was a 38-year-old who ran just as fast and opened up play compared to the 20-something-year-olds in his team.
The full-time whistle signalled India had qualified for the semifinals after two wins while Nepal’s players slumped to the ground in despair as they were knocked out of the tournament. India’s victory over Nepal propels them into the semifinals of the SAFF Championship 2023. While the win provided relief, it also highlighted areas of improvement for the Indian team. Coach Igor Stimac and his coaching staff must address these issues promptly to ensure continued success in the tournament. As India’s footballing future takes shape, the challenges faced against Nepal serve as valuable lessons for the team’s development.
