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Blue Tigers – The Indian football team showed no mercy to neighboring Pakistan football team as they thrashed opposition team xxx in their first game of the SAFF Championship 2023 in Bengaluru on Wednesday night. The Group B clash took place at the Shree Kanteerava Stadium and it took just ten minutes for captain Sunil Chhetri to put his team in front.
Riding on a mistake by Pakistan goalkeeper Saqib Hanif, Chhetri scored one of the easiest goals of his international career to put India in front. Moments later, Chhetri scored again from the penalty spot. (Watch: India coach Igor Stimac sent off after spat with Pakistan coach and players)
The referee signaled the spot after a Pakistan midfielder touched the ball inside the penalty area as Anirudh Thapa tried to play a through ball over him.
Talking about tactics, India had two players playing on the wings, each with a midfielder behind their back to support them and was joined by Chhetri in the middle in the final third.
Pakistan started with a low pressing strategy and waited for the opponent to enter their own half and then steal the ball. India were comfortable moving the ball around and finding gaps to exploit Pakistan’s defense and midfield line.
The first half ended with a scoreline of 2-0. Pakistan After conceding two goals in a short period of time in the first half decided to calm things down with a low defense block strategy.
Just minutes before the half-time whistle, an untoward incident took place as India head coach Igor Stimac got into a scuffle with the opposition coaches and players.
In the second half, India once again scored twice from the penalty spot with subliminal finishes from Udanta Singh and Sunil Chhetri. Two goals in the second were icing on the cake for India as they finished the game against Pakistan with a scoreline of 4-0.
“Losing is very disappointing. Especially for India. But India is a talented team. For us, it has been very, very tough. 24 hours of travel. No training for three days. Some of the boys went to their rooms today. Arrived in the evening. These are just facts,” said Pakistan’s Essah Sulaiman after facing difficulty in traveling to India.
