New Delhi: Continuing with their successful tour of Europe, the India U-17 men’s football team registered a 6-1 victory over SSV Reutlingen U-16 in a training match in Reutlingen, Germany, on Saturday.
It was India U-17’s second friendly fixture in Germany. The Blue Colts had earlier gone down 1-3 to a U-16/19 mixed side of top German club VfB Stuttgart on Wednesday. The team, coached by Bibiano Fernandes, arrived in Germany after having played a series of preparatory matches in Spain.
The India U-17 exerted their dominance right from the first whistle, opening the scoring in the 24th minute via Rohen Singh as he latched on to a through ball from Prachit Gaonkar before finding the net.
However, Reutlingen equalised through Eimen Zalloumi just ten minutes later. But the parity did not last for long as Shashwat Panwar, who also scored against Stuttgart three days ago, retook the lead for India in the 37th minute after showing some neat footwork.
Bibiano’s side started the second half in an even stronger fashion. Lemmet Tangvah, who had sent his header wide from a Gogocha Chungkham cross just moments before, finished off a delivery from Rohen to make it 3-1 in the 52nd minute. Goalkeeper Pranav Sundarraman also had work to do as he saved a couple of shots from Jamie-Noah Demir and Ralf Raab to maintain India’s advantage.
The Blue Colts put more pressure in the final 15 minutes of the game. First, substitute Thanglalsoun Gangte picked out Gogocha, who made it 4-1 before the latter turned provider for another substitute Omang for India’s fifth goal.
The last goal came in the 87th minute when Faizan Waheed was brought down by Laurin Assassa in the Reutlingen box, and Gangte converted the resulting penalty to make it 6-1 in India’s favour.
The Blue Colts are preparing for the AFC U-17 Asian Cup final rounds to be played in Thailand next month. Placed in Group D, they will play Vietnam (June 17), Uzbekistan (June 20), and Japan (June 23) in Pathum Thani and Bangkok.
(IANS)
