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Indian colts came from two goals down to rescue a draw against Austrian club AKA Tirol’s U-16 team. Komal and Rahul scored a goal in each half to keep the Indian team’s momentum intact ahead of the U16 Asian Football Confederation's (AFC) Championship qualifier to be held in Iran. India have already qualified for the finals of the tournament as the hosts but the qualifiers would help them in analyzing the competition ahead of the finals in 2016.
The match was played as per normal regulations of 45 minutes per half in Austria. The away team got off to a bad start by conceding an unnecessary goal as early as the 20th minute. The youngsters had barely adjusted themselves when they found themselves 2-0 down within the next five minutes.
The second goal seemed to act like a wake-up call and the young Tigers started finding their passes with ease and began playing the football that has earned them so much praise over the last couple of months.
The youngsters’ efforts were rewarded just before the break when Komal halved the deficit with five minutes to go to the interval. The young Indians kept on pushing for the equaliser befoe the break, but the Austrians held them off to take a deserved lead halfway into the match.
The second half began with both teams being cautious in possession and not really creating many clear cut chances. With the game being stagnant, U-17 coach, Nicolai Adam, decided to make a change in the team bringing on Rahul for Aman.
Rahul came up with the equalizer ten minutes from the end
Rahul, who was on target against SPVGG Greuther Fuerth U-16 as well, needed just seven minutes to stamp his authority on the game. With a thunderous shot, Rahul brought the scores level in the 80th minute. Both teams seemed satisfied with the draw and game ended at 2-2.
The U-17 team has been on the two-moth tour of Europe playing various youth teams of different German clubs coming up with some amazing results and performances. The team had earlier put an astonishing 14 goals past German club Rosenheim U-16.
Along with participating in the U-16 AFC Championships, this team will also be the one to represent India in the U-17 World Cup to be held in India in 2017
