India’s soccer campaign off to a booming start

In other matches, hosts South Korea defeated minnows Maldives 4-0 in a Group-A match while Oman blanked Malaysia 1-0. In Group-B, Thailand beat Yemen 3-0 while Vietman and United Arb Emirated played out a goalless draw. Grouped alongwith India in Group-C, China defeated Turkmenistan 4-0.

The Indians, who have shown a marked improvement undernew coach Stephen Constantine in recent international tournaments, appeared a trifle tentative in the opening half but managed to find their rhythm after the lemon break to keep their quarter-final hopes alive in the 24-team championship being held at five different venues near Busan.

Bhutia fired the first salvo in the 47th minute of the contest with a header and then struck another goal with a neat placement from close to the goalmouth 18 minutes later to leave the hapless Bangladeshis in a daze. The hard-working Renedy Singh then struck just one minute later in the 66th minute finding the target with a curling long ranger eluding the reach of a diving custodian Biplab Bhattacharjee.

Bangladesh never recovered from the brief goal-scoring assault although they did manage to come dangerously close to the Indian goalmouth on a couple of occasions. Locked goalless at the interval, the Indians turned on the heat in the second minute of the second half with Bhutia finding the target. India could have added one more goal to their account in the 10th minute of the second session but Samir Naik failed to control his header from inside the box following a measured cross from Bhutia from the left flank.

The Indians were reduced to 10 players just one minute before the final whistle when Dipak Mondal was given marching order by referee Al Harrassi Rashid of Oman for a dangerous tackle. (PTI)