SAFF Championship 2013: India 1-0 Pakistan – Five talking points

Pakistan are still in contention

They might have lost the opener against their arch-rivals but Pakistan’s performance in the game should give them the confidence to get results in their final two group games and qualify for the semi-finals for the first time since 2005. The green shirts started the game slowly and conceded a very unfortunate goal, but after the first 20 minutes, they started dominating possession with Denmark-based striker Hassan Bashir’s movement causing the India defence all sorts of problems.

Mohammed Adil was another standout player as he terrorised Mohanraj and was extremely unfortunate not to have a couple of assists at least. In truth, Pakistan looked a technically superior side largely due to the presence of their foreign-born players but coaching consultant Mohammed Shamlan and head coach Shahzad Anwar will be disappointed with the team’s finishing and the way their physical level dropped in the second half.

Pakistan were unable to provide any threat in the final third and looked to have run out of legs as many of their players didn’t track back to stop India’s counter attacks. In fact, Pakistan could have easily conceded three of four in the latter stages had India skipper Sunil Chhetri been more clinical. They next have a must-win game against Nepal and have every chance of recording three points from it if they repeat their first half performance from the India game. But Pakistan will have to deal with the influence of the home fans and memories of the twin wins over Nepal in Kathmandu earlier should enhance their self belief.