South Asian Games 2016: India scrapes past Maldives by 3-2 margin to seal berth in semis

In a must win match Indian team in their final group match against Maldives managed to scrape past the Maldivian team by a narrow 3-2 margin to seal a place in the semi final of the 12th SAG Games held at Guwahati.
Indian team under pressure to win this match as gaffer Lee Johnson made some changes from last as Sunit Passi lead the attack Mawihmingthanga started in the midfield.
As the team started with 4-3-2-1 formation with Udanta and Mawihmingthanga playing on both flanks and Sumit Passi played as the sole striker. Rowlin Borges found himself in the usual defensive midfielder role and Germanpreet Singh was the holding midfielder against a attack minded Maldivian outfit.
Both team started brightly as it seemed to be an end to end encounter but it was the Indian team who broke the deadlock on 4' as Udanta Singh found himself on a one-on-one situation following a defensive  error from the Maldivian backline.The pacy forward made no mistake slotting it past the keeper to make it 1-0 for India. Udanta could have doubled his tally on 8' minutes but this time he triggered the ball wide to waste a golden opportunity.
Maldivian team in the meanwhile attacked relentlessly as they used their height advantage over Indians to win most balls in the midfield and penetrated Indian half with ease as Indian defense was stretched on multiple occasions with goalkeeper Rehenesh TP making some fine saves to keep India in the contest.
Maldives finally broke the deadlock on 10' as Muruthala Adnan hammered a loose ball from the corner as Indian defence was caught napping to level the score for Maldives.
As booth team looked to break the deadlock it was Indians who again took the lead as Pritam Kotal on 12' headed in from corner to give Indians a much needed lead..
As India looked to hold on to their lead from an ever threatening Maldivian team Indian defense never looked comfortable as the defensive pair of  Bikramjit Singh and Salam Ranjan Singh showed lack of understanding as Maldivian forwards Ismail Essa and Hasan Niyaz used the space between the two defenders to test Rehenesh time and again, as Maldives pressed continuously they were rewarded on 42nd minute as India conceded an own goal to level the score at 2-2 at half time break.
In the second half India need to push forward to get the all important goal but Indians in the midfield could not string any passes or build up play as Maldivians collected the lose balls and threatened to break the deadlock.
However against the run of play in a swift counter attack Udanta Singh found himself in another opportunity and made no mistake to slot a volley past Maldivian Goalkeeper to give India the all important 3-2 lead.
Coach Lee Johnson made some changes as he brought in local boy Holicharan Narzary from BTC region much to the delight of local crowd in place of an off colour Sumit Passi and teen sensation Lallianzuala Chhangte in place of Jayesh Rane..
Both teams could have had more goals but Maldives missed some easy chances to level the score as Indian team held on to a tight fought encounter to scrape past Maldives.
As India gears to face Nepal or Bangladesh in the semi final, Lee Johnsons boys need to get their act together and cover their lapses in midfield and defence to proceed further into the competition.