The Indian U-23 team have qualify into the semi-finals of the SAFF Champions Cup,being played in Bangladesh.

India managed to win over an in-form Nepali team. The Indian team just needed to win another match to qualify to the last four.  Whereas Nepal needed to win to stay alive in the tournament.

The Indian team performance was similar to the one against Afghanistan, where they couldn’t put together decent passes, but of course both teams were struggling in the start.

The only goal of the match came when  Robert Lalthamuana took a  free kick, but it was too close to the keeper. However, the Nepali defender Malla mistimed his jump and guided the ball into his own net, giving India the lead.

The Nepalese increase their attacks but like Afghanistan couldn’t get their finishing in place and were quite unlucky in some attacks.

The game went into a hibernating state as both teams struggled to make any clear opportunity to score. Nepal had most of the possession but still did not manage shots on target. Indians on the other hand already seemed content defending the lead rather than go for a second. Making a positive move though, Sukhwinder Singh brought on Jeje, the man who scored the winner against Afghanistan.

The Nepali’s played really well, stringing some beautiful attacks but didn’t manage to break the young Indian defense.