The Indian men’s football team had another disappointing day at SAFF Championship 2021 on Thursday as they were held to a goalless draw by Sri Lanka in their second match of the tournament. India failed to threaten Sri Lanka much at any point in the match while the Sri Lankan defenders succeeded in their strategy of slowing down the game and stopping India in their box. With the draw, India now have just two points from two games at the SAFF Championship 2021. This was Sri Lanka’s first point in the tournament so far in their three matches after they lost to Bangladesh and Nepal.
Currently India are third in the table from where only the top two will make the final. Nepal lead the table with six points from two games while Bangladesh are second with four points from two matches.
In what was termed the ‘slowest match of the tournament’ by commentators, India struggled to create any chances of note. Igor Stimac’s men lacked creativity and fluidity as Sunil Chhetri has found himself isolated on a number of occasions.
India were unable to take the game against Sri Lanka, a team ranked 98 places below them in the FIFA rankings. Indian players struggled to put a few passes together while the Sri Lankan defenders did well to stop the opponents.
Such was the frustration from the team that they were fouling Sri Lankan players time and again and forcing the referee to stop the play.
In the 34th minute, Sri Lankan keeper Sujan went down and was being treated and in that time, Sunil Chhetri was seen having a chat with Liston Colaco and Anirudh Thapa. He looked visibly annoyed and was seen trying to explain them something.
Overall, it was a half of hopeful balls from India without any real service for their captain and talisman. There was a lack of cohesiveness in their build-up play, which was evident in their forays forward.
Yasir Mohammad came on as a half time substitute and did look decent individually but the overall play from India did not improve much. In the 61st minute, India had two decent chances which they failed to convert. Liston on the left laid the ball for Mandar, who put a cross in the middle towards Thapa but the Chennaiyin FC man failed to tap it in. Off the corner, Subhasish went for a header but that was wide.
In the 71st minute, substitute Farukh Choudhary had the ball into the back of the net but the referee had blown his whistle for a foul from Subhasish and the goal was not given.
In the 89th minute, Subhasish Bose had a massive chance to win it for India but he blazed the ball over literal handshaking distance. The ATK Mohun Bagan defender merely had to tap in Yasir’s deflected corner but could not apply the finishing touch.
Eight minutes of stoppage time was given due to Sri Lanka’s time-wasting tactics but India could not make it count.
Read all the Latest News , Breaking News and IPL 2022 Live Updates here.
Comments
0 comment