Doha : “Cometh the hour, cometh the man” a phrase very popular, the Indian National Team Captain Sunil Chhetri is an epitome of the same. Chhetri scored a brace against Bangladesh in FIFA World Cup and Asian Championship qualifier as his country needed 3 points to stay in the race for Asian Championship qualification to be played in China in 2023.
The Indian skipper scores his 73rd International goal on 80 minutes with a header from the right side of six yard box and gave his team the much needed lead. He completed his brace and the 74th International goal on 92 minute with a fine finish in the top left corner of the oppositions goalkeeper and made it look like a piece of cake.
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The stellar performance from the leader came at a time when his country needed it the most he put an end to 11 match winless run of Igor Stimac’s men. He put his country in a fighting position. And also registered their first victory in the qualifiers since November of 2015.
With the 73rd and 74th goal Chettri is now behind just Cristiano Ronaldo, who has 103 goals in the list of highest international goal scorer. Chhetri overtook Lionel Messi who scored his 72nd goal against Chile courtesy a penalty in the World Qualifiers on Thursday (June 7) .
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In a team, which is often regarded to be not so good on the ball. Chhetri is an intelligent player who is very composed on the ball. He prefers to pull the strings of the game, create the game rather than just waiting for opportunities to come to him. In 2005, when Sunil Chhetri appeared wearing the national colours for the first time India was ranked 131, constantly in the shadow of “cricket”. Currently with a world ranking of 105, India seems to be paying more attention to their footballers.
Much of which can be attributed to this man wearing the armband, from encouraging fans to come to stadiums to placing himself alongside the names of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. Chhetri has brought limelight back to this game in many ways not just on the field off the game as well.
