Kathmandu: Young stopper Arnab Mondal scored his maiden international goal as defending champions India beat Maldives 1-0 to enter the final of the SAFF Championship for the ninth time here on Monday.
The win, which Wim Koevermans’ boys achieved without their skipper Sunil Chhetri, meant that India have made it to their fifth successive final in the tournament and will meet Afghanistan in the final on Wednesday.
Mondal, the lad from Kolkata’s Behala region, was a bundle of nerves throughout the match but turned out to be an unlikely hero in the end with a delightful strike.
The winner came in the 85th minute when Mehtab Hossain’s corner from the right flank was neatly headed down by Syed Rahim Nabi and Mondal, who had joined the attack, struck a powerful angular right-footer that crashed into the net.
The final whistle saw some ugly scenes, however, as Maldives substitute Ali Umar attacked referee Idham Mohammed and was red-carded after the match.
But it did not stop there as a group of Maldives players attacked one of the organisers and police personnel were called to intervene as things looked like getting out of hand.
Maldives’ striker Ali Ashfaq was tied down for most part of the match with India employing zonal marking with stand-in captain Gourmangi Singh giving a good account of himself.
Maldives created a bit of pressure from set-piece movements, which gave some anxious moments to Indian custodian Subrata Paul.
In the second minute, Maldives got a free-kick and Mohammed Sifan’s low delivery, which evaded the wall, saw Paul fumble while trying to gather it on the bounce but forward Mohammed Umair’s shot went straight to the goalie.
Another anxious moment came in the 27th minute when Ashfaq’s left-footed inswinging free-kick was nicely parried away by Paul.
It was a goalless first half but India played with some intent unlike their horrible show against Nepal.
Jeje Lalpeklhua, operating from wide left, tried to make inroads while Arata Izumi, in central midfield, worked tirelessly helping in build ups and acting as a snatcher also.
Koevermans was a visibly satisfied man as he termed his team “deserving winners” after the match.
In contrast, frustrated Maldives coach Urbanyi Istavan Bela made a contradictory statement that “India never deserved to win.”
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 at the post-match press conference.
Maldives’ Hungarian coach was, however, livid about a penalty, which he felt was denied to Ashfaq by Jordanian referee Idham Mohammed.
“You don’t have to get killed in order to get a penalty,” Bela said sarcastically.
“I am sorry but India never deserved to win as we were the ones who were playing football. India were simply playing mindgames,” the Maldives coach further added.
But the losing coach did find it hard to explain the poor conduct of his players who attacked the referee and in the process a couple of their players – Ali Umar and Mohammed Rasheed – were red-carded.
Asked if he wasn’t aware that his team could get disciplinary sanctions from the AFC as some of the players tried to attack All Nepal Football Association treasurer Dheerendra Pradhan, Bela was on the defensive.
“I know what you are saying but players were emotionally charged and I will not hold anything against them.”
Koevermans, however, did rub salt into the opposition coach’s wounds when asked about “mind games”.
“You don’t play football that way. In the second half, we played exceptionally well. We hardly let them play. We were ones who were playing football,” Koevermans said.
“And frankly speaking, I don’t care what others think. They were dominating but that was in their own half and far from our end which wasn’t dangerous at all.”
Koevermans did praise Robin Singh for his efforts upfront as he replaced Sunil Chhetri, who was out with double yellow.
“It’s not easy to replace a captain and Robin did a commendable job.” (PTI)