India’s veteran goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu reckons the team showed resilience after their semifinal win against Lebanon in the SAFF Championship on Saturday at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium, Bengaluru. After a goalless draw in regulation time, India booked their final berth after winning by 4-2 in penalty shootouts.
Sandhu made crucial saves to help his team get over the line. Udanta Singh, Naorem Mahesh Singh, Anwar Ali, and Sunil Chhetri scored from the spot kick for the home team whereas Lebanon missed two out of their four attempts.
With this win, India secured their SAFF Championship final for the 12th time in the history of the tournament.
“I am lucky that in our team we have such good penalty-takers and I get to train against them. It also helps me when opportunities like this (shootout) come. You can’t save all (penalties), but it helps you to know what the penalty-taker is thinking,” Gurpreet stated after India’s victory.
“The No. 10 may try to trick you; maybe a center-back or a center-forward will decide to shoot one way. Experience helps; physicality helps. If I was 5’4”, I wouldn’t have been able to save that (Maatouk’s) penalty,” he added.
In fact, Sandhu has received great support while playing at Kanteerava Stadium for Bengaluru FC in the Hero Indian Super League. The custodian revealed it is always special to play at the venue for the national team.
“Playing at home, at Kanteerava, in the national team jersey is always special,” Gurpreet stated.
“Another magical night where the team showed resilience,” he added.
India was without the services of their veteran defender Sandesh Jhinghan but Sandhu believes Mehtab Singh and Anwar Ali were able to step up.
“We were shaky in some moments because we were missing Sandesh, but again, credit to Mehtab (Singh) and Anwar (Ali) for making sure we didn’t concede. This team is doing well, and the amount of work we have put in the last five to six weeks is showing. Not in technical or tactical terms, because that is something the coaches will decide. But the grit, the determination and the fight are something I am really proud of,” Gurpreet mentioned.
India will take on Kuwait in the SAFF Championship final at Kanteerava Stadium, Bengaluru on Tuesday.
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