The Blue Tigers have had a good run in the ongoing SAFF Championship 2018 and are en route to successfully defending the title. They will be facing Maldives in the much-awaited summit clash.
The Indian team is the only unbeaten side in the tournament. Stephen Constantine's men won both their group stage games with a 2-0 scoreline -- the first one was against Sri Lanka and the second against Maldives itself.
However, there was a little concern shown by Constantine as the Indian team was not convincing in their wins and should have easily managed to score a lot more goals in these two matches.
They faced a resurgent Pakistani side in the Semifinal clash and that is when the entire team became alive. It was a closely-contested encounter with neither of the sides finding the net in the first half. Pakistan's custodian Yusuf Butt made some acrobatic saves to deny the Indians on multiple occasions.
One of the finds of the tournament – Manvir Singh – took the matter in his own hands (feet here) as he scored a brace in the 2nd half. The first goal came in the 49th minute and was a tap-in courtesy of a pinpoint cross from the left flank.
Lalliazula Chhangte looked in great knick and was right in the middle of the action when he was brought on in place of Nikhil Poojary in the 68th minute. The super sub ran down the middle, sidestepped two defenders and gave a perfectly waited pass to Vinit Rai, who just had to roll the ball towards Manvir, who blasted it home for India's 2nd goal in the 69th minute from the edge of the box in some style. However, following a rough challenge, Manvir had to be substituted for Sumeet Passi and missed out on a possible hat trick.
Manvir Singh was deservedly named the Most Valuable Player on the day. Indian keeper Vishal Kaith was also good as usual and the best part about the match against Pakistan was that each player contributed to the win.
Maldives, on the other hand, also had an eventful semifinal as they defeated Nepal 3-0. The Maldivian players looked in great knick as Nepal is no easy team to defeat and to do it with such a margin is commendable. The upcoming final match of the SAFF Championship promises to be a nail-biter. The Maldivian side played with tremendous grit and determination to reach the final.
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