Indians sail into semis in SAF Football C’ship
From Zeeshan Mirza

KARACHI—Indians become the third team to sail into the semifinals of South Asian Federation (SAF) Football Championship after defeating Bhutan 3-0 Saturday. Three-time champions India slammed three goals in space of 22-minutes to jump on the top of pool “B” with six points at Peoples Stadium here.
However, India’s performance was not up to the mark as they missed several chances because of poor finishing and fighting spirit of Bhutan.
Skipper Baichung Bhutia banged the opening goals seconds before the interval while Mahesh Gawli slammed the second in 52nd minute and Abdul Hakkim added the third in 66th minute.
Minnows Bhutan offered the stiff challenge to fancied India in the first session and they were not able to open the scoring just before the break.
Baichung picked up the balls from top of the box and bang into the net with a powerful shoot which gave goalkeeper Jigme Singye, who is also the captain of the team.
Soon after the resumption Mahesh Gawli gave his team some respectability by making 2-0 on a pass from Alvitor D’cunna.
Before Bhutanese could recover from the shock, striker Abdul Hakkim completed the tally in 65th minute.
Bhutan striker created several inroads into Indian defence but they were unable to convert them.
In a clash of the giants India will take on holder Bangladesh in their last league outing on Monday at 6.00 P.M.