Sunil Chhetri brace vs Bangladesh gives India win after nearly two years
It was comfortable in the end after looking anything but till the 79th minute. Sunil Chhetri had missed a free header and buried his head in his shirt. On the touchline, India head coach Igor Stimac wrapped the back of his head with his hands, the second time he had conveyed incredulity at things not going India’s way. The first was in the 29th minute when both Chhetri and Stimac felt India should have got a penalty instead of their talismanic skipper being charged with handball.
Against Afghanistan in Dushanbe in 2019, Chhetri had missed a free header which made the difference between India coming back to win and being held 1-1. Soon after, Chhetri’s header went astray on Monday, left back Subhashasish Bose glanced a header out. By now, Stimac was looking worried as another game without a win—12 under his watch—was looming large. Chhetri had headed over in the first half too. Seconds before that central defender Chinglensana Singh hadn’t; his powerful header was flying to goal but Riyadul Hasan blocked it on the line.
The provider of all those passes—all from set-pieces—was Brandon Fernandes. Going into this game of the 2022 World Cup and 2023 Asian Cup qualifiers, all of India’s three goals had Fernandes providing the assist. His corner-kicks, free-kicks and passes were accurate at Doha’s Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium too but missing were India’s poise and finesse in the front third. Manvir Singh dragged a defence-splitting pass from Fernandes wide in the 15th minute and it set a trend of India trying to hurry against a Bangladesh team that preferred getting behind the ball to keep India out.
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Not being sharp in front of goal was a problem for India when the teams met in a pre-Covid world at a Salt Lake stadium throbbing with emotion. In the 20 months between then and now much hadn’t changed. India had 70% of the ball but two shots on target in the first half. If they ended the game with 72% of the ball and nine shots it was because Stimac changed his wide men at half-time. Out went Udanta Singh, who had been hugging the right touchline but was rarely allowed space to switch on the afterburners, for Yasir Mohammad. Bipin Singh was replaced by Ashique Kuruniyan.
It was Kuruniyan who provided the assist for the first goal; a curling ball from the left that was moving away from him till Chhetri slotted it home with a superb glancing header. Minutes earlier, his glaring miss had seemed like the end of an era—he hasn’t often gone four international games without scoring—but in the 79th minute and with his 73rd goal, Chhetri showed how misleading such notions could be. His right forefinger raised, Chhetri ran to Stimac who buried him in a hug; the defender towering over a striker as it usually is in football games.
India had controlled the game till then. Glan Martins mopped up stuff in front of the back three providing Suresh Wangjam the freedom to go forward; Fernandes was in his element as the provider from his inside left position; the defenders were compact and Gurpreet Singh Sandhu was never tested. The only thing missing was the goal and Chhetri had provided that. Now India had to close the game, and by playing among themselves, they were doing exactly that.
Till Liston Colaco found Suresh who, even in the 92nd minute, refused to not chase a forward pass. Bangladesh too were possibly not expecting it and by the time Suresh had taken charge, they didn’t notice that Chhetri had dropped slightly back to receive the pass. Like for the first goal, Bangladesh coach Jamie Day could have things to say about the marking but that took nothing away from Chhetri’s smart, prompt chip that made it 2-0 for the night.
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This was the first time since 2007 that India beat Bangladesh in senior team football. Then, Bhaichung Bhutia had scored off an assist from goalkeeper Subroto Paul. In that tournament Chhetri had four goals. As India ended an almost two-year run without a win—beating Thailand 1-0 in the King’s Cup on June 8, 2019 was India’s last win—he is still going strong. India play Afghanistan on June 15 and victory will seal the third place in group E, to avoid a playoff for the Asian Cup qualifiers.
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