Sri Lanka, Nepal Bangladesh, India to figure in SAFF Under-17 Soccer Championship Semis today

Four teams including hosts Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India and Nepal will vie for honours today to reserve a berth in the grand finale on Wednesday at the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) under-17 Soccer Championship at the Race Course Stadium in Colombo.

Both the semis are poised to be a close tussle and in the first game at 3.15 p.m., the high riding Bangali Tigers, subsequently, one of the undefeated teams with Nepal of the tournament, will go out as favourites against the team India. Bangladesh put up a belligerent performance as a team to notch up two wins scoring five goals each against Sri Lanka and Maldives conceding just a solitary goal against the host in the curtain raiser.

With ten senior players who represented the under-20 team earlier this year in their ranks, are fully focused to maintain their unbeaten record while assuring a place in the final. As per their team sources, their players are injury free and are likely to infuse the same strategy of “Offensive play”. Their head coach Paul Thomas Smalley, the “think-tank” of their success story so far, was quite appreciative of their boys’ performance under tough circumstances. He was pretty confident that they could continue their prime form to win this game and to surge ahead to clinch this all-important championship. At the outset, at a press briefing he disclosed their plans and was quite optimistic of winning this title. With a few days of break they have evaluated their rivals strength and weaknesses to go flat out to win this game today.

India after winning the tournament opener against Bhutan, later went down to Nepal 3-1. As per Bibiano Fernandes the Indian head coach, who has been serving in this capacity with various junior squads, lamented about their preparation and the balance of the squad which has been under his purview for the last six months.

Even though they lost the last game they are well motivated for this big game after some serious chit-chat with the boys. Nevertheless, as per their team sources they are hungry for this win and will go all out to accrue a positive result to move to the next stage of the competition.

The Lankan Lions will face an acid test against the Nepalese team who had shown a drastic improvement so far. After a close 2-1 win over Bhutan in the tournament opener, Nepal throttled the Indian team 3-1 which surprised several critics. Imbibed with players who are fitter and highly skilled capable of rising to the big occasion are tipped as favourites of winning this game. Their playing pattern has been quite commendable which enabled them great success.

On the other hand, at 8 p.m., hosts Sri Lanka will have an uphill task compared to their rival players. They will have to pull up something exceptional if they are to curtail their rivals momentum while making the crucial scoring moves. Aruna Sampath, the Lankan head coach, spoke high about his players after their win over Maldives. “We had a poor start against Bangladesh but bounced back and got into rhythm against Maldives for which I am very happy,” said Samptah.

“We know we have a tough opponent in the semis. We have studied their playing pattern and will adopt an adequate plan to win that game. It is going to be a herculean task for us. But I am confident our boys will strive hard to win,” added Sampath at the post press briefing held last Friday.