India beat Nepal 2-0, march into SAFF cup semi finals

Bengaluru: Team India secured semi-finals spot with back-to-back wins in the SAFF Championship football tournament. In their second match, India emerged victorious against Nepal with a 2-0 scoreline. Captain Sunil Chhetri and Mahesh Singh were the goal-scorers for India. Meanwhile, Nepal, which suffered their second consecutive defeat after losing to Kuwait in the first match, was eliminated from the tournament. India advances to the semi-finals with a perfect record of six points from two games.

Impressively, India has maintained a clean sheet for nine consecutive matches. Their remarkable defensive performance began with a 4-0 victory over Hong Kong in the Asian Cup qualifiers in June last year. Since then, India has not conceded a single goal while scoring a total of 18 goals.

Both of India's goals came in the second half after a goalless first half. Despite their strong performance in the previous match against Pakistan, India faced challenges in breaking through Nepal's defence in the initial stages of the game.

It was in the 61st minute when India finally found the breakthrough. Chhetri capitalised on Mahesh Singh's cross, tapping it into the net to open the scoring. This goal marked Chhetri's 91st international goal.

In the 70th minute, Mahesh Singh extended India's lead by scoring their second goal. Following a deflected shot by Sunil Chhetri that hit the crossbar, the ball fell directly in front of Mahesh, who wasted no time in finding the back of the net.