2020 AFC U-16 Championship Qualifiers: High-flying India record two straight 5-0 victories
India U-16 football team has now registered two out of two 5-0 scorelines in the group stages of the 2020 AFC U-16 Championship Qualifiers after hammering Tajikistan in the first game and Bahrain in the second. The win against Bahrain has made it the high flying Blue colts’ 13th win a row.
The young Blues now have two wins, two clean-sheets and a goal difference of +10 after two games. India built on its wonderful opening in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-16 Championship qualifier by registering a 5-0 win over Bahrain at the TTYMI stadium on Friday.
Sridarth Nongmeikapam continued his goalscoring form with a brace(4', 38'), Shubho Paul pitched in with a brace as well (45', 75') and Pritam Meetei got the other (25) as goalkeeper Aman Sahani registered another clean-sheet in the qualifiers to make it two in two.
The Blue colts earlier defeated Turkmenistan 5-0 on Wednesday to record their 12th consecutive win in all tournaments. They looked to dominate their opponents from start to end.
After going into the break with a two-goal lead, India picked up right where they left off. A few minutes into the restart, Taison added the third, as he smashed in a cross by Shubho from just outside the far post. It was after this goal, India coach Bibiano Fernandes brought on striker Himanshu in place of Taison, pushing Sridarth out to the wing. Himanshu had an immediate effect as he was played through into the box by Maheson and he went on to finish with great aplomb. Sridarth finished off the scoring late in injury time to make it five for India.
Their win against Bahrain has now extended their winning run to 13 games and has built a positive momentum before facing host Uzbekistan in what could be the group decider.
