India made a remarkable start to their campaign in the 2023 SAFF Championship by beating Pakistan 4-0 in an exciting encounter at the exuberant Kanteerava Stadium. The victory come two days after the Blue Tigers lifted the Intercontinental Cup in Odisha. Captain Sunil Chhetri bagged a hat-trick, scoring twice from the spot after capitalizing on a goalkeeper howler to score the opener. The last goal of the match came through Udanta Singh who beat the offside trap latching onto a world-class delivery from defender Anwar Ali to finish home.
Coach Igor Stimac also got sent off after obstructing an opposition throw-in resulting in a scuffle between the sides near the half-time whistle. That added a bit more to the rivalry that was brewing. Overall, India will be joyous to the start of the tournament juggling a demanding schedule playing five games in two weeks. They will play four more games in 12 days provided they move into the knockouts of the SAFF Championship. India will face Nepal in the next match on Saturday, 24th June 2023.
The Blue Tigers set a series of records in that period and this victory over Pakistan was a continuation of those. It was a historical fight and it did not disappoint at all. In fact, the nature of the victory even against a 195th-ranked side showed the desire and hunger of the team who are desperate to make the most of this preparatory match for the Asian Cup in Qatar next year.
India 4-0 Pakistan Records
Clean Sheets King
The win tasted sweeter because India did not concede a goal which presented a new record. The Blue Tigers beat their run of six consecutive clean sheets achieved in 1951-52 to make it seven this time. Their defence conceded a goal last time in the 3-0 defeat to Vietnam last year. All the shutouts have come in 2023 and on home soil.
Unbeaten Streak
India have strung together an unbeaten run of seven games starting with the Tri-Nation Cup back in March. Six of those have resulted in a victory with the 0-0 draw against Lebanon the only exception. They need just one more win to equal their historic eight-game unbeaten streak, they won all of the games that time, set in 2016-17 under Stephen Constantine.
Biggest
This is the biggest-ever win for India against Pakistan in the SAFF Championship. It is also the second-largest victory the Blue Tigers have managed in this meeting since a 5-2 thrashing in the 1999 South Asian Federation Games. This is also the first with three or more goals and keeping a clean sheet.
Ninth
These two met for the ninth time in the SAFF Championship with India registering their fifth consecutive victory. Overall, Stimac’s side triumphed in seven of those fixtures losing only once and drawing the other.
More shutouts
India also kept their 12th clean sheet against Pakistan in overall meetings with four coming in the SAFF itself. The previous one came in the 1-0 win in 2013.
Fourth
Sunil Chhetri became just the fourth Indian player to score a hat-trick against Pakistan after Puran Bahadur Thapa, Jeje Lalpekhlua and IM Vijayan. He also scored his first international goal for India against the very opposition back in 2005.
