{"id":17028,"date":"2013-09-06T00:47:51","date_gmt":"2013-09-06T00:47:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/indiansportsnews.co.in\/?p=17028"},"modified":"2013-09-06T00:47:51","modified_gmt":"2013-09-06T00:47:51","slug":"saff-championships-india-book-a-semi-final-berth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indiansportsnews.co.in\/?p=17028","title":{"rendered":"SAFF Championships: India book a semi-final berth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"images\/football\/saff%20championships%20india%20book%20a%20semi-final%20berth.jpg\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" alt=\"SAFF Championships: India book a semi-final berth\" style=\"margin-right: 6px; margin-left: 6px; float: left;\" \/>Kathmandu: India lost by a goal but didn\u2019t miss their goal. Despite a 1-2 defeat to hosts Nepal in front of a 30000-odd deafening crowd at the Dasrath Stadium, India advanced to the semi-final of the 2013 SAFF Championship.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"><br \/>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>India will play either Maldives or Afghanistan in the last-four. India finished second in Group A with 4 points from three matches while Nepal topped the group with 7 points from same number of outings.<br \/>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In the other match of the day Pakistan defeated Bangladesh 2-1 to finish on four points. But India pipped Pakistan on Head to Head count to book a berth in the last four.<br \/>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>An acrobatic Syed Rahim Nabi\u2019s brilliant side-volley in injury time did silence the home crowd but only for a short spell. Nabi met Jewel Raja Shaikh\u2019s centre from the right to reduce the margin for India.<br \/>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe knew Nepal were a very good Team. They were quick and have some very good quality Players. They did threaten us but didn\u2019t have clear chances in the first half,\u201d National Coach Wim Koevermans quipped at the Post-match Press Conference.<br \/>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the second half, we kicked long and it was easy for them to defend. I want to congratulate Nepal on their victory but at the same time, it was our aim to advance to the semis which we eventually did,\u201d he added.<br \/>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPlayers need to follow plan but it didn\u2019t really happen. We look forward to play the Fourth Final on 9th.\u201d<br \/>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>INDIA: Subrata Paul; Nirmal Chhetri, Gouramangi Singh, Arnab Mondal, Mohanraj Nallappan; Syed Rahim Nabi, Mehtab Hossain, Arata Izumi (Lenny Rodrigues), Jewel Raja Shaikh, Jeje Lalpekhlua (Robin Singh), Sunil Chhetri.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"images\/football\/saff%20championships%20india%20book%20a%20semi-final%20berth.jpg\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" alt=\"SAFF Championships: India book a semi-final berth\" style=\"margin-right: 6px; margin-left: 6px; float: left;\" \/>Kathmandu: India lost by a goal but didn\u2019t miss their goal. Despite a 1-2 defeat to hosts Nepal in front of a 30000-odd deafening crowd at the Dasrath Stadium, India advanced to the semi-final of the 2013 SAFF Championship.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[10263,10033,1788,10482,1205,6293,10264,10272,1856,861,5224],"class_list":["post-17028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-latest","tag-2013-saff-championship","tag-afghanistan","tag-bangladesh","tag-dasrath-stadium","tag-india","tag-indian-sports-news-network","tag-maldives","tag-nepal","tag-pakistan","tag-sunil-chhetri","tag-wim-koevermans"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>SAFF Championships: India book a semi-final berth - IndianSportsNews.com - Latest Updated Sports News &amp; Sports Blogs of Cricket, Hockey, Golf, Football, Tennis &amp; Other Sports<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/indiansportsnews.co.in\/?p=17028\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"SAFF Championships: India book a semi-final berth - IndianSportsNews.com - Latest Updated Sports News &amp; Sports Blogs of Cricket, Hockey, Golf, Football, Tennis &amp; Other Sports\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Kathmandu: India lost by a goal but didn\u2019t miss their goal. 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