SAFF Women’s Championship 2024: Indian football team ousted in semi-finals after shootout loss to Nepal
After the match, which was held up for over an hour, was tied at 1-1 at full-time, the Indian women’s football team lost the penalty shootout 4-2.
Football
India crashed out of the SAFF Women’s Championship 2024 football tournament after losing in the semi-finals to Nepal via penalty shootout at the Dasharath Stadium, Kathmandu on Sunday.
Sangita Basfore (62’) scored the opening goal of the match to put the Indian women’s football team ahead but Sabitra Bhandari, Nepal’s all-time record goal scorer, equalised to ensure the match was tied at 1-1 at full-time.
Nepal won the penalty shootout 4-2 to set up a final clash against Bangladesh, who beat Bhutan 7-1 in the other semi-final. It will be a rematch of last year’s final which Bangladesh won 3-1.
Incidentally, India, who had won all five editions of the SAFF Women’s Championship before 2023, were knocked out by Nepal in last year’s semi-finals as well.
The match, played in front of a packed stadium, was a highly charged one and saw almost 70 minutes of stoppages in chunks.
After a goalless first-half, Nepal was reduced to 10 women after Rekha Poudel was given her marching orders after being shown her second yellow card in the 51st minute.
The match resumed after a brief delay but was drawn to a grinding halt again shortly after India had taken the lead through Sangita Basfore’s brilliant shot from outside the box.
Nepal thought they had immediately equalised in an open net after the referee restarted the game before the Indian players could be back in their own positions following their goal celebration. The goal was eventually disallowed, prompting strong protests from the home camp and the match was held up for over an hour.
Though play eventually resumed eventually, the stoppages had taken a toll on India’s concentration in the game and eventually led to Nepal scoring the equaliser shortly after the restart and dragging the match to a shootout.