India defeated Nepal 3-0 to win their eighth SAFF Championship title in Male on Saturday. This was 12th time that the Blue Tigers played the final out of 13 editions. Only in 2003 India failed to make the final.
Sunil Chhetri equalled Lionel Messi with his 80th international goal when he gave India the lead in 49’. He thus became the second highest goal scorer in international football among active players behind Cristiano Ronaldo.
For India Suresh Singh in 50’ and Sahal Abdul Samad in 90’ scored the other two goals.
This is the Indian football team’s first title triumph under head coach Igor Stimac. Stimac also became the third foreign coach after Jiri Pesek (1993) and Stephen Constantine (2015) to clinch the title with the Indian team.
Sunil Chhetri finishes the SAFF Championship 2021 as the top-scorer with 5 goals thus became the second Indian after I M Vijayan (1993, 1997) to become top scorer twice in SAFF Championship. Earlier in 2011 Sunil Chhetri finished as top scorer.
Picture Courtesy: Indian Football Twitter
