SAFF U-19: Bangladesh lose to India in the semi-finals

India edge out Bangladesh in the semi-finals of the 2015 SAFF U-19 Championship at Nepal’s ANFA Complex today.

India progressed to the final after coming out on top by four goals to three in the sudden-death round of tie-breakers.

Both teams failed to score after full-time, and the highly contested semi-finals had to be decided by penalty shootout.

The dramatic shootout of the first round of five tries ended at 3 goals for each team.

Mashuk, Rohit and Mannaf converted for Bangladesh while Ibrahim and Emon could not score.

In the sudden-death, Indian booter kept his cool and scored first to keep his team alive in the tournament.

Unfortunately for Rahmat, he missed his chance at glory when his wild kick flew over the cross-bar and ended Bangladesh’s decent run in this competition.

Bangladesh qualified for the semi-finals after a win and a defeat in the group phases. The opening game saw Bhutan beaten by two goals to nil but in the next game, hosts Nepal won by 2-1.

India won both their games in the group phase, against Afghanistan and Maldives, and now will play Nepal for the title of the champions.

The 2015 SAFF U-19 Championship is the first edition of the SAFF U-19 Championship, a international football competition for men's under-19 national teams organized by SAFF.