SAFF U-18 Championships 2017: Lalawmpuia scores brace as India thrash Bhutan 3-0

Thimphu: India bounced back from their opening game defeat to Bangladesh as they thrashed hosts Bhutan 3-0 in their second match of the SAFF U-18 Championships on Friday. [caption id=“attachment_4074083” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  India’s U-18 football team. Image Courtesy: Twitter @IndianFootball[/caption] Lalawmpuia missed a penalty in the 26th minute but redeemed himself with an opportunistic goal from a corner in the 38th minute and added another in the 79th. Asish Rai scored the third goal in injury time. With this win, India are third on the table with three points from two matches. India started off as the better team as Bhutan could not string together a proper attack in the first 20 minutes of the game. Princeton shot wide from a free kick while Lalawmpuia and Edmund both saw their shots either going wide or being picked up by the rival goalkeeper. Abhisek Halder hit the post in the 19th minute and soon after, India earned a penalty. But Lalawmpuia could only hit it over the post as India wasted the opportunity. A series of corners finally gave India the breakthrough as Lalawmpuia captilised on a goal-mouth melee to give India the lead. The second half was also dominated by India. Edmund shot wide while Lalawmpuia saw his attempt being saved by the goalkeeper. The game slowed down for a while before Roshan’s blistering pace changed all that as his solo run on the counter was kept out by the goalkeeper. Soon after, another solo run, this time from Lalawmpuia, saw him striking from 25 yards out to double the lead. Subsititute Ashish Rai scored deep into the injury time to complete the rout. India play Maldives next on 25 September.