AGENCIES
NEW DELHI
India colts signed off the Atletico Paranaense U-17 International Tournament with an emphatic 2-1 victory over the USA-based team Orlando City SC in the third position match on Sunday. Amarjit scored from the penalty spot and Shubham Sarangi headed the second goal in the first half to secure their first victory of the tournament.
Nicolai Adam tinkered with his starting eleven a bit, handing Tamal Naskar his first start under the woodwork along with Shubham Sarangi in the attacking third. The proceeding didn't start in a merrier way for India as the USA outfit found the back of the net before the clock crossed three minutes. Orlando City built upon an attacking move from the left flank and eventually the striker tapped it home to put his team in front.
India, not having lost their focus, tried to recuperate quickly to come back into the match. Ten minutes later, India earned a freekick at the top of the box and Sanjeev cut it short to Boris. Boris released it for an onrushing Shubham but the latter was brought down illegally inside the box by the opposition defender to concede a penalty kick. Amarjit Singh hammered it in to draw parity on the scoreline after 20 minutes.
From a short corner, Sanjeev again played the trick of passing short to the scorer Amarjit who lofted it into the box and Shubham did no mistake to head it home to put his team at the front. Orlando City SC tried to level things but India defenders left the ground held their heads high at the half-time.
After the changeover, Adam introduced Lalengmawia and Aniket Jadhav to instil more pace in the attacking third at the expense of Abhijit Sarkar and Shubham Sarangi respectively. Orlando City, in their pursuit of the elusive equaliser, tried to tweak in their strategies towards the end of the match but without any result.
With the win, India finished the tournament at the third position behind hosts Atletico Paranaense and Uruguay national team, who were slated to lock their horns in the final later in the day.
