India beat Maldives, set up Afghan summit clash

A late strike by Arnab Mondal helped an unimpressive India get past Maldives in the semi-final of the SAFF Cup football tournament here Monday. Holders India will next face Aghanistan in Wednesday’s final.

Mondal scored the winner in the 85th minute. Sans skipper Sunil Chettri, who is out due to double booking, India started on a bright note with Robin Singh and Jeje Lalpekhlua gelling well upfront.
In the 7th minute Arata Izumi almost met Jeje’s cross from the left but the rival goalkeeper Imran Mohamed leapt higher than all. Five minutes later, Mehtab Hossain curled in his free-kick but it agonisingly hit Robin’s knee before going out. And even as the trio of Arata, Jeje and Robin were stitching in the rival area the jungle of legs just outside the rival goal area frustrated them.

Jeje had a crack at the goal in the 30th minute when Robin chested down a Arnab Mondal long ball but it went over. Maldives revolved around Ali Ashfaq. The highest goal scorer of the tournament looked dangerous at times but the Indian defence were equal to the task. But despite the Indian pressure, Maldives refused to crack.

This is how good we can be, says wim Koevermans

KATHMANDU: Indian football team’s chief coach Wim Koevermans was a visibly satisfied man as he termed his team ‘deserving winners’ of the semi-final match against Maldives while a furious and frustrated Maldives coach Urbanyi Istavan Bela made a contradictory statement that ‘India never deserved to win.’
While India’s Dutch coach can take heart from the fact that his strategy of shutting out Ali Ashfaq worked wonderfully.
‘I am very proud of the boys as we showed how good we can be. We started defensively and showed patience. The best part was that we didn’t allow to get bogged down under any kind of pressure. The combination worked fine for us and we deserved to win,’ Koevermans  said. pti