The Hindu : Sport / Football : India crashes out

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Sep 30, 2004

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Sport - Football

India crashes out

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 29. India put up a brave fight against Uzbekistan but still crashed out of the AFC Youth football championship in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, after suffering its second straight defeat in Group `C'.

The Indians, who lost to Syria 1-2 in their opening match, went down again by the same score on Tuesday to the Uzbeks who scored an injury time winner after being locked 1-1 during the 90 minutes regulation time, according to information received here.

India, last-minute replacement for Turkmenistan in this competition, was down by a 28th minute goal by Aleksandr Kletskov at the end of the first half. After changing ends the Indians fought back and equalised in the 67th minute through Manjit Singh.

But the Indian defence came apart seconds before the final whistle when Sadriddin Abdullayev scored his second goal of the tournament with a stunning long ranger to shatter the Indians.

Uzbekistan along with Syria, which trounced Laos 4-1 in another match, booked their places in the quarterfinals with maximum points from two games.

India's best performance in the tournament came three decades ago when it shared the trophy with Iran in Thailand in 1974. — PTI

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