India beat Maldives to set up B’desh summit clash

Bhubaneswar: A ten-man India U20 team booked their slot in the final of the SAFF U20 Championship by defeating Maldives by a solitary goal in their last league match played at the Kalinga Stadium on Tuesday.
India who finished on 9 points will take on Bangladesh U20 in the final on Friday. Earlier in the day, Bangladesh U20 played a 1-1 draw with Nepal U20.
Substitute Gurkirat Singh proved to be the difference between the two teams as Parthiv Gogoi’s grounder found a deflection and the super-sub banged the ball into the net in the 89th minute.
For all their domination and penetration which saw chances fall their way in both halves, the Indian colts who had scored eight times in their last encounter against Nepal, stayed guilty of not being to capitalise on the chances they created. They even hit the crosspiece in the 67th minute.
The Indian colts, however, suffered a jolt when striker Gogoi, the highest goal scorer in the tournament so far was given marching orders in the 90th minute.
Earlier, Maldives’ sole effort at the Indian goal had come in the very first minute but Indian goalkeeper Som Kumar dived to his right -- fully stretched to keep off a Zain Zafar free-kick.