Doha: Sunil Chhetri’s inspiring late brace powered Indian football team to 2-0 victory over Bangladesh at the Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium in Doha on Monday (June 7) registering first three points in the Asian qualifiers. Chhetri rewrote history books as he went past Lionel Messi (72) and UAE’s Ali Mabkhout (73) with 74 standing just behind Cristiano Ronaldo (103) in the active international goal scorers list.
View this post on Instagram
Igor Stimac’s men came into this game with 11 match drought and played with a lot of intent creating chances for them while enjoying fair share of the possession on the ball. It looked a completely contrasting side to the one that played the last game against Qatar. They ran to the opposing defence more and rotated the ball well. Manvir Singh had a good game finding the ball in the box a couple of time while Chinglensana Singh’s bullet header in the first half was cleared off the line superbly by the Bangladeshi defence. However, The “Blue Tigers” who found it hard to finish off chances needed the inspiration of their talismanic leader and he evidently delivered it again.
First he headed home from Ashique Kuruniyan’s swerving cross before slotting it home a few minutes the final whistle with clinical finish sealing the deal. His emotions after the match was there to seen as how much it meant to him and his side in general.
With this win India possibly booked their berth in the third round of the AFC 2023 Asian Cup qualifiers.
