Sunil Chhetri netted a hat-trick against Pakistan and won the match 4-0 on Wednesday in a SAFF Championship game. With this, Chhetri became the second Asian who scored the maximum number of goals in international soccer. Incidentally, Iran’s Ali Daei happens to be the highest goal scorer in Asia and he has scored 109 goals after playing 149 matches. On the other hand, Sunil has found the net 90 times.
The Match
India started playing on a confident note from the very beginning of the game mainly because of their experience and better skills. Though Pakistan tried its best to resist the Indian attack, they were not successful on most occasions.
India was able to score the first goal after 10 minutes only after measuring the strength of their opponents. Chhetri was the man who scored the opening goal which was a decent field goal. The same person again found the net after just 6 minutes via a penalty, and at this point, it became clear who is going to be the winner in this tie.
India tried hard to increase the margin in the first half but was not successful mainly because of the stubborn Pakistani defense. Although the men in blue missed several chances, those were not easy by any means.
The first half came to an end with India leading 2-0. The Indian coach Igor Stimac received a red card after he tried to impede an opponent player from taking a throw-in, and for this, he was force to depart from the dug for the rest of the match.
However, it was not enough to prevent the Indian onslaught in the 2nd half. After pressing hard, the home nation was able to strike in the 74th minute and the score became 3-0 in India’s favor. The Pakistani players fouled Chhetri within the box and India got a penalty kick as a result. The Indian captain did not make any mistake to score a goal from the penalty spot.
The lead was further increased by a goal from Udanta Singh in the 81st minute and the visitors had no chance to make a comeback. It was Sandesh Jhingan who provided the pass to Udanta who found the target without any problem at all.
Chhetri Makes A Comment
Following the match, the Indian skipper Chhetri made a comment that they were elated to begin the tournament on a winning note. It is not easy to play in these types of conditions that prevailed during the match, and it was good to see that the Indian players were able to make the crowd happy.
Here, we like to mention that Chheri is now 38 years of age, and he succeeded in scoring his initial goal for India in 2005 against the same opponents.
