Indian football: India U-16 Football team loses 0-3 to Malaysia in a friendly match

Kuala Lumpur, July 23: India Under-16 football team lost 0-3 to Malaysia in a friendly game as part of their exposure tour here on Monday.

Indian U-16 boys, who have come to Malaysia at the back of a heart-wrenching loss to Thailand last week, started showing their intent right from the kick-off.

Ridge blasted from inside the box in as early as the fourth minute but the Malaysian keeper took his time to parry it away.

Malaysia, on the other hand, gave the Indian defenders a tough run for the money in their own box. They continued to push constantly but Biaka and the sturdy Indian defenders averted the danger.

Givson and Ridge were looking forward to hurling the opening goal from the counter-attacking opportunities but they could hardly find any hole to breach the Malaysian defense.

Finally, the Malaysia striker Muhd Najmudin slotted their opening goal in the 26th minute to hand his team an advantage against the Indians.

Bibiano Fernandes opted for a couple of change in quick succession and introduced Sailo and Manish at the expenses of Givson and Gurkirat respectively before the boys headed to the changing room with a one-goal deficit to the Malaysians.

Changing over, Bibiano’s boys started with great intensity and Ridge, on the turn of the game, hit the side-netting two minutes into the game.

India earned a free-kick in the 55th minute but Bekey failed to keep it within the frame. Three minutes later, he got another chance but miscued it completely.

India created quite a few chances in the last quarter of the game but they were missing the final punch inside the box.

Sailo swiveled a long ball to Vikram but the skipper failed to connect it on time whereas two minutes later, Vikram’s cross was collected safely by the Malaysian goalkeeper before Ravi could convert it.

But they kept the Malaysian defense on check throughout. Five minutes to the whistle, India earned back-to-back three corners but Bekey’s tries could have been dealt in a better way by the Indian attackers inside the box.

As Bibiano Fernandes opted to push more legs inside the opposition half, Malaysian attackers took the advantage and scored a peach of a goal to double their lead in the 88th minute.

Four minutes later, They hurled another attacking move from the left flank which resulted in their third goal to leave the Indian team flabbergasted.

India will play the same opponents again on Thursday. IANS