New Delhi: The contrast in mood was evident after the match. While the Maldives coach seemed angry and combative, a calm Savio Medeira could barely keep the smile off his face. But given that India had just defeated the Maldives 3-1 to enter the SAFF Cup final, it was to be expected.
In yet another tense encounter between the two premier South Asian sides at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Friday, Shamweel Qasim equalised after Syed Rahim Nabi’s first-half opener, before a brace from Sunil Chhetri took India to their eighth final in nine editions.
The one time India did not make it to the final, the Maldives did; and coach Istavan Urbanyi felt his side was unlucky not too have repeated that feat. “We had problems in the first half. [Ali] Ashfaq was in pain. He suffered an injury in the first couple of minutes. And then we gifted India the first goal.”
Ashfaq - the team’s main striker and talismanic skipper - briefly left the pitch for some treatment before returning to play out the entire match. “I would say we played the first half almost one man down. I would have substituted him if it had been any other player, but Ashfaq has a special role in this team,” said Urbanyi.
The turning point for the Hungarian, though, was Chhetri’s penalty in the 70th minute. “If it was a foul, it was unnecessary. It came at a bad time for us (when the scores were level at 1-1), because we were putting India under pressure then,” admitted Urbanyi. “Chhetri did not get to touch the ball much in the second half. We controlled India.”
“I am proud of my team and how they played in the second half. We worked hard and we also made some tactical changes - I made a substitution and we changed the system. We had enough chances to beat India. India were lucky to win this game.”
India coach Medeira, though, felt his side had done enough to earn the win, even though he agreed that Maldives had been the stronger side after the break. “I give full credit to my boys. Maldives were down by a goal in the second half and they were looking for the equaliser. So it is natural for more pressure to be put on the opponents in that situation. They were more confident in the second half. The most important thing was that the boys kept the ball rolling. They came back well after their equaliser and showed what they can do.”
Medeira also had words of encouragement for his under-scrutiny defence. "I think our defence did well for the moment. In the second half, they were trying to open up from the left. They had a quality striker and our defenders performed well.”
The defence will have to do even better as they come up against Afghanistan and an in-form Balal Arezo in the final on Sunday. Medeira, though, believes his side will learn from the mistakes they made when they drew 1-1 against the same opponents in their opening group encounter.
“Every match is different. We will go back and see the tapes [of the matches] and see what went wrong, to do the corrections and prepare accordingly.”
Asked if canceling training in favour of rest before this match had benefited India, the Goan said: “I gave the boys an extra day of rest because they have been playing continuously. Maybe it helped. I might try it out again and see if it is useful for us in the final!”
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