SAFF Championship 2023: India beat Kuwait in penalty wins 9th title :Image : India Football /Twitter
The Indian football team has won the SAFF Championship tournament. The Indian team won the title for the second time in a row and for the ninth time overall by defeating Kuwait in the penalty shootout at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru on Tuesday. Both the teams were tied at 1-1 for the stipulated 90 minutes. Neither team could score a second goal even in its 30 minutes of extra time. In this situation, the match was decided in the penalty shootout.
In the penalty shootout, both teams had five chances to score five goals each. The team that misses in this loses the match. After the stipulated five shots each, both the teams were tied at four each. Udanta Singh for India and Mohammad Abdullah for Kuwait missed the target.
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After the draw of four, it was the turn of sudden death. In this, the team which misses to score the goal directly loses. Naurem Mahesh Singh scored for India in sudden death. At the same time, the shot of Kuwait captain Khalid was stopped by India’s goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh. He became the hero of Team India.
India had earlier become champions in 1993, 1997, 1999, 2005, 2009, 2011, 2015 and 2021. In the tournament’s 14-year history, India has emerged as the champion nine times and finished runners-up four times.
Indian captain Sunil Chhetri said , “Not only this particular match but the whole tournament was fantastic. The entire team performed tremendously. I can’t ask for anything more from team. We have been together for seven-eight weeks. It is not easy to win two consecutive penalty shoot-outs.