New Delhi: Defending Champion India are back in the groove as they thrashed minnows Bhutan 5-0 in their second league encounter of the 2011 SAFF Championship played here at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Monday.
After a sour start to their campaign where they were held for a 1-1 draw against Afghanistan and seeing Bhutan go down to Sri Lanka by three goals, only thing that Indian coach Savio Madeira expected from his boys was a big win. The Indian players did not let their coach and fans down as they dominated the match upright to register a comprehensive win led by a brace by Clifford Miranda and Indian Football’s poster boy Sunil Chhetri. The other goal was scored by Syed Nabi. India now lead the group A table and just need to secure a draw against Sri Lanka to sail in to the semi finals.
India looked to dominate right from the word and started creating opportunities from the initial moments of the match. The host came real close to scoring the first goal when Nabi from the left crossed in a ball, but the charging header by Sunil went over the bar.
India drew the first blood of the match when Nabi netted the ball in far post off a corner from Clifford after being denied three goals in the match due to offside.
India, whose midfield looked very detached and disorganized in the first match, got their act together and looked far more superior to their counterparts. Clifford who was quite of the element in the first match shone bright in the match and was a livewire in the flanks. He helped India double the lead just a minute before the half time with a fiery left footer.
After the change of ends, India started from where they left and soon got a chance to increase the lead in the 48th minute, but Jeje Lalpekhlua’s wide shot denied them. However nine minutes later, India got their third goal of the match through a solo effort by Clifford who found the far post of the net. Already in the driver’s seat, Coach Savio Madeira looked to score more goals and in the 62nd minute brought in Joachim Abranches in place of the tired Jeje to add more pace to their attack.
With three goals down Bhutan’s fate had already been sealed, but their miseries did not end there. Star Indian striker Sunil Chhetri, who had been playing a feeder for the goal scorers till now, joined the party and found his first goal of the match in the 68th minute when Clifford from the left gave a cross to him in the box and all he did was just tap it in.
India then made two more substitutions and replaced Climax Lawrence with Jewel Raja in the 65th minute and then went ahead to bring out star of the match Clifford Miranda and send in Lalrindika Ralte in order to give him some rest.
In the 84th minute, India increased their lead by five goals when a fine solo run by Chhetri got him his second goal of the match. Chhetri who picked up the ball from the midfield area dribbled past two defenders to find the bottom of the right post. With this loss Bhutan are at the bottom of the group table and has already crashed out of the tournament.
Savio Madeira was delighted with the win. “It was a good win and the boys worked real hard for it and put up a better show than the previous, match,” he said.
Commenting on India’s opponent he said that he does not much idea about how football is played in Bhutan, and admitted that the team was very young and played immature football to lose like this.
By Samikshan Dutta Choudhury
Indian Sport News