BENGALURU: In sports, sometimes you can see things happening before they actually happen. When Kuwait’s Khaled Hajiah stepped up to take the sixth penalty of the shootout that the SAFF Championships final had boiled down to, the Sree Kanteerava Stadium could tell that he was not going to score. Sure enough, his shot only found a diving Gurpreet Singh Sandhu. The shootouts had ended 5-4 and India were SAFF Cup champions once again.
An exciting 90 minutes ended 1-1 with Lallianzuala Chhangte and Shabaib Alkhaldi scoring for their respective sides. Extra time too passed without any further change to the scoreline. With a packed Kanteerava — a crowd of 26380 had turned up — roaring India on, the Blue Tigers always had the edge. Sunil Chhetri, Sandesh Jhingan, Chhangte, Subhasish Bose and Naorem Mahesh Singh scored while Udanta Singh registered India’s lone miss.
India’s defence may have received a lot of plaudits before the game, but Kuwait’s opener looked a bit too easy. In the 14th minute, a pass from midfield found Abdullah Albloushi, who had slipped in unnoticed behind the Indian defence. It was the Kuwait right-back who had done the damage to India in the group game, his cross deflected into the net by Anwar Ali. Albloushi turned India’s tormentor again as his cross across the face of the goal left Alkhaldi with a simple tap-in.
To India’s credit, they did not let the goal dampen their spirited start to the game and almost replied in kind. Chhetri tested Kuwaiti keeper Abdulrahman Marzouq with a stinging shot that the latter failed to hold on to. It almost fell into the onrushing Chhangte’s path, but Kuwait managed to put the ball out. Marzouq was called into action again from the subsequent corner as Thapa tested him from a narrow-angle.
For all India’s fight, the pendulum slowly looked to be swinging Kuwait’s way. They were beginning to hoard possession as India began to make mistakes on the pitch. The Blue Tigers were dealt another blow just around the half-hour mark as Anwar Ali — India’s best defender throughout the tournament — left the field with a hamstring injury.
But then came the moment that restored all of India’s lost momentum. Ashique Kuruniyan did some excellent work down the left before finding Chhetri. The Indian captain released Sahal with just the goalkeeper to beat but the Kerala Blasters midfielder chose to find Chhangte. All the latter had to do was tap into an empty net. Kuwait regained some of their momentum in the second half as they launched multiple attacks on the Indian goal. For all their endeavour though, they never quite managed to test Gurpreet Singh Sandhu.
Chhangte had an opportunity to give India the lead just around the hour mark. A hurried clearance from the Kuwait keeper Marzouq found its way to Jeakson Singh in midfield. His cross was nodded on by Chhetri into Chhangte’s path. With only the keeper to beat, the Mumbai City forward could only muster a feeble shot.
There was a late scare for India with just seconds left on the clock when Mohammad Abdullah found himself with a clear sight of goal. But his low shot was parried away by Gurpreet. India had their own late chance when substitute Rohit Kumar’s cross from the right flashed across the goal, evading everyone.
Kuwait resorted to a long-ball game in extra time with their pacey wingers attempting to get behind India’s midfield and latch on to passes from the midfield. However, the most that came out of it were a couple of corners which India defended with ease.
The final chance of the game went to Chhangte with just a couple of minutes left on the clock. After receiving the ball from Nikhil Poojary, Chhangte blazed just over. Then came the lottery that was the penalty shootout and it turned out to be India’s night at the Kanteerava.