KABUL (SW): Thousands of followers welcomed their national football heroes on arrival at the Hamid Karzai International Airport Monday morning on their return from India where Afghanistan was crowned as the runner-up for South Asia Football Federation (SAFF) Cup.
Fans were hoisting the tri-colour national flags and chanting slogans to acknowledge the performance of their national heroes. Many however, indicated that the festivity could have been on a greater scale had the Afghan squad clinched the title.
Despite impressive performance at the group stages, and dominance in the final, Afghanistan lost final to the experienced Indian squad in a 2-1 thriller. India defeated Afghanistan to lift the SAFF Cup for the seventh time. The match went into the extra time and talismanic captain Chhetri scored the winner. Chhetri got the better of Afghan defender Hashemi to score the decisive goal.
For Afghanistan, who came in the tournament with 15 foreign-based players in their squad of 20, it was a sort of disappointment.
India’s goal was attacked on a number of occasions in the first half but Indian goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu stood as a wall. In the last few minutes of the first half, Sandhu stopped Afghan captain Faysal Shayesteh’s stylish flick for a goal that could have arguably been declared the best of the tournament had it went through him.
ENDS
