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Maldives 0
India 1 (Arnab Mondal 86)
A second half strike from central defender Arnab Mondal saw holders and six-time record champions India beat Maldives 1-0 in the SAFF Championship 2013 semi-final. Wim Koevermans’ side will face Afghanistan in the final on Wednesday.
India produced by far their best performance of the tournament as they restricted Maldives to only a few half chances and bagged the winner in the 86th minute through Arnab, who netted his first-ever international goal in his fifth international appearance.
Koevermans started with both Jeje Lalpekhlua and Robin Singh but it was once again a 4-4-1-1 with Arata Izumi in the hole behind lone striker Robin and Jeje on the left flank. On a more pleasing note for Indian football fans, reigning AIFF Player of the Year Syed Rahim Nabi started at left back with Nallappan Mohanraj on the bench.
As expected, Ali Ashfaq returned to the Maldives lineup with the island nation once again starting with a 3-5-2 system but Ahamed Abdulla was a surprise inclusion at right wingback with Ali Fasir operating upfront alongside Ashfaq.
India employed a physical approach from the very first whistle as they committed a couple of fouls in the first minute. However they also looked to attack at every opportunity with Arata nearly getting on the end of Jeje’s cross in the third minute.
All the talk pre-match was about Sunil Chhetri’s suspension and the influence of SAFF Championship’s all-time highest scorer Ali Ashfaq but India looked like a team which is keen to prove a point and gave Ashfaq some special treatment.
Mehtab Hossain was the first Indian player to foul him and from then on at least two Indian players were seen closing down the Maldives skipper whenever he was in possession. They were either surrounding him in numbers or committing fouls which frustrated Ashfaq as he didn’t have any impact from open play.
The only real meaningful effort from the Maldives talisman was a freekick from the right flank which was palmed away by Subrata Pal.
India were tactically brilliant in the first half but going forward, the absence of Sunil Chhetri was evident as Robin’s movement wasn’t great. They only created half chances with Arata involved in each of those opportunities but India failed to seriously test Maldives goalkeeper Imran Mohamed in the first half.
Koevermans’ side started the second half on a positive note as well with Francis Fernandes going on a brilliant run on the right flank but he couldn’t find an Indian shirt in the box. A minute later, India had another decent move on that side but Nirmal Chhetri’s cross was cleared away.
At the other end, India had a nervous moment when Subrata Pal failed to collect an aerial ball from a corner but thankfully his defenders were alert and cleared the danger. The clearance though fell to Mohamed Umair whose long range effort was held by Subrata.
The biggest talking point of the half came when Nirmal Chettri played a weak back pass towards Subrata and Ashfaq looked to have been brought down by the India goalkeeper. But the Jordanian referee deemed it to be a dive and booked the Maldives captain.
Maldives didn’t look like scoring from open play while India hit the side netting and also had a goal disallowed due to offside. The three days’ rest had clearly helped Koevermans’ side as they were finishing the regulation time strongly and from a corner they opened the scoring.
A Mehtab Hossain corner was headed down towards goal by Nabi and hit a Maldives player but Arnab pounced on the loose ball and found the back of the net with a powerful shot to start wild celebrations in the Indian bench.
Maldives coach Istvan Urbanyi made two late substitutions in search of the equaliser but India held on for the victory and now are one win away from securing a hattrick of SAFF Championship titles. There were some ugly scenes after the full-time whistle as several Maldives players attacked the match officials with two of them getting sent off.
Maldives: Imran Mohamed; Mohamed Sifan, Akram Abul Gani, Shafiu Ahamed; Ahamed Abdulla, Mohamed Arif, Ahamed Niyaz (Ali Umair 88), Mohamed Umair, Mohamed Rasheed (Hassan Aduham 89); Ali Fasir, Ali Ashfaq.
India: Subrata Pal, Nirmal Chettri, Gouramangi Singh, Arnab Mondal, Syed Rahim Nabi; Francis Fernandes, Lenny Rodrigues, Mehtab Hossain, Jeje Lalpekhlua; Arata Izumi (Jewel Raja 79); Robin Singh.
