AFC Youth Festival: U-13 Colts put up a splendid show

Victorious in Iran

The India U-13 squad returned after an impressive performance in the AFC Youth Festival in Yazd where three footballers – striker Lalremruata and midfielders Lalmuanzova and Sandip Bhattacherjee were declared the ‘Best Players,’ by the Asian Football Confederation experts.

Sandip Bhattarcharjee

Lazim Ali

Lalremruata

In addition, midfielder Lazim Ali was declared the ‘Most Skillful Player’ as he excelled in the Skill Tests.

In addition to the five first round matches, India also played three matches in the second round, out of which they won two.

All the matches in the second round were of 60-minutes duration. The team management fielded separate Playing XIs in both halves.

In the first match of the second round, India blanked Bhutan 7-0 as Firozuddin Mollah scored a hat-trick. Besides, Basu Mukherjee netted a brace while Lalremruata completed the rout.

In the second match, India thumped Sri Lanka 8-0 as Firozuddin Mollah scored three goals; Rajesh Goswami scored a brace while Basu Mukherjee and Sandip Bhattcharjee scored one each.

In the last match, the colts conceded one in each half to go down 2-0 to Iran.

Manager Satheevan Balan was pleased with the performance of the boys. “It was the first time the kids played at such a big platform. But they stayed composed.”

Assistant Coach Tarun Roy added: “There was a healthy turn-out in all the matches and our performance was appreciated by all.”

First round results:

India beat Bhutan 8-0India d/w Pakistan 1-1India beat Yazd City 3-0India beat Bhutan 8-0 (Return-leg)India d/w Iran 1-1

Second-round results:

India beat Bhutan 7-0India beat Sri Lanka 8-0Iran beat India 2-0.