Malé: SAFF woes continue for India as they were held in an underwhelming 0-0 draw against Sri-Lanka yet again in the second encounter of the Championship.
Igor Stimac’s tactics and plans raised doubts for another time as India could must only two points out of six in their first two matches of the tournament.
India did have a dominant start to the game and held the upper hand throughout the game but failed to register any score. The first clear chance came through in the 22nd minute when, Udanta Singh played Liston Colaco but the shot went over the bar. Minutes later Udanta went past two defenders to hand it to Seriton Fernandes but was ruled offside. Although there was much of goal mouth action in the first half , it lacked conversion.
Udanta and Liston in the second half were all up and attacking along with skipper Sunil Chhetri. In about 11 minutes from the start of the second half, Chettri played Udanta, which the forward slot in but was ruled offside before substitute Farukh Chowdhury’s goal came to stop after Subhashish Bose committed a foul.
72' Farukh laced a stray ball from the edge of the box into the goal, but the referee had already blown for a foul against Subhasish.
— Indian Football Team (@IndianFootball) October 7, 2021
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With a lot of wasted chances in the finals minutes by Manvir Singh , Sahal Abdul Samad and Chhetri with the Sri-Lanka defenders foiling the intentions, the encounter ended in a frustrating draw for the Blue Tigers.
The Blue Tigers now sit at the third with two points , following Bangladesh at second with four points and Nepal at the top with six. Igor Stimac’s men will be back in action at the same venue against Nepal on October 10.
