SAFF U-17: Confident India face Bangladesh in final

India will fancy their chances of maintaining their stranglehold on Bangladesh when the two sides meet in the final of the SAFF U17 Championship here on Monday.

India began their tournament nine days ago with a last-gasp 1-0 victory over Bangladesh in the group stage. The same script unfolded last year as well, with the India U16 boys beating their eastern neighbours 1-0 in the first game and then 2-0 in the final.

Head coach Ishfaq Ahmed and his boys will hope for a repeat of that on Monday for a successful title defence. For the record, the two teams have met four times in the finals of SAFF men’s age-group tournaments, with India winning thrice (U18 in 2019, U20 in 2022 and U16 in 2023) and Bangladesh emerging victorious once (U16 in 2015).

“We know Bangladesh are a good side. They did well to come from behind in their semifinal. They had some hiccups but they’ve been more stable as compared to the other teams. Our win against them is in the past. The final is a different game,” said Ahmed.

Set-pieces are something India have been excellent with so far. They’ve scored four goals from dead ball situations so far and Ahmed has been delighted with that.