Bangladesh beat SL; India flatten Nepal

Top scorer for team India Thanglalsoun Gangte (blue jersey) attempts to foil rival player Ugyen Dorji’s move in their match yesterday

Bangladesh put up a belligerent performance to trounce the host Sri Lanka by five goals to one in their curtain raiser of the inaugural South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Under-17 Soccer Championship at the Race Course Stadium in Colombo yesterday.  

After conceding two goals within the first 10 minutes in the match played under lights, the Lankan charges did well to curtail the rival onslaught but failed to rescue them from defeat. It was Mohamed Rihas’s acrobatic goal keeping skills which saved the hosts over a dozen of goals subsequently holding the winners to a 2-0 score line by breather.  After the turnaround, Bangladesh booted three more goals to notch up a convincing win.

Earlier India launched its campaign with a bang by defeating Bhutan three goals to nil.  

One of the strong contenders for the title, team India completely dominated their opponents in all departments of the game under rainy and soggy ground conditions to post the initial points in Group ‘B’.

Even though the score line read a mere three goals for the winners, it was a one-way traffic scenario from the first whistle, as the Indian players laid a strong defensive wall depriving their rivals from making inroads and sneak through into their territory, while the two Indian strikers were exceptional and went on attacking the rival defence, and were quite successful in their mission.

Thanglalsoun Gangte broke the deadlock in the ninth minute when he booted a spectacular goal to put his team in the lead. From then on, they imposed great pressure on their rivals by making some teasing moves. Gangte increased their lead further in the 15th minute with another well executed goal, which gave them a 2-0 lead at lemons.

After the short whistle and under a heavy downpour, both teams fought hard with Bhutan making a valiant effort to reduce the lead, while Indian players went solo with a ploy to score more goals. The winners successfully beat the rival defence only on one occasion - in the 47th minute and that was enough for Vanlalpeka Guite to score and seal the game.