Nepal suffer 3-0 loss to India in SAFF Championship final

KATHMANDU: Nepal national football team faced a 3-0 defeat at the hands of India in the final match of the 13th edition of the SAFF Championship on Saturday.

Skipper Sunil Chhetri scored first goal for India in the 49th minute. Similarly, Suresh Singh Wangjam doubled the score in the 50th minute.

Likewise, Sahal Samad scored third goal in the injury time.

Nepali were under pressure as the Indian team had been dominating the game since the beginning.

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Nepal played today’s match in the absence of Coach Abdullah Almutairi and influential winger Anjan Bista as they were slapped with two yellow cards in the previous matches.

Coach Almutairi has already announced that he would step down as the Nepal nation football team coach after the final match of the SAFF Championship.

This is the first time that Nepal have reached the final of the 13th edition of the SAFF Championship.

Nepal, who had defeated Maldives 1-0 in the first match, hammered Sri Lanka 3-2 in the second match.

Nepal lost to 1-0 at the hands of India in the third match and held a 1-1 draw against Bangladesh in the fourth match.

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This is the eighth time that India have won the SAFF Championship title.

India had won the SAFF Championship title in  1993, 97, 99, 2005, 2009, 2011 and 2015.