SAFF Championship 2023: Top five talking points from India's win against Nepal

The Blue Tigers have qualified for the semi-finals of the competition.

India have claimed their second straight victory in the SAFF Championship 2023, after a nervy encounter against Nepal.

The Gorkhalis made life difficult for India, and restricted them to a goalless affair until the 60th minute. But two quick goals by Sunil Chhetri and Naorem Mahesh helped India see the game through, and get the three points.

With that said, here are the top five talking points from the game.

5. Not a convincing performance

Despite getting a win on the night, India's performance wasn't at all convincing, and it was far from what we have grown accustomed to expect from India. The Blue Tigers were not compact in the back, and their midfield was also not pretty impressive.

Especially in the first half, Nepal were choking India's defense with their robust attacking gameplay, and Stimac has a task on his hands, to make sure that such problems don't persist.

4. Debut goal for Mahesh

Mahesh Singh had a night to remember, as the player scored his first-ever goal with the national team. Having made his senior team debut at the Tri-Nation tournament, Mahesh has been a bright spark since.

Mahesh assisted India's first goal, and headed in the second. Other than that, he was very precise with his dribbling as well as his passing, and was India's best player on the pitch tonight.

3. The defensive pairing of Mehtab-Bheke can do better

Having benched his usual defensive pairing tonight, Igor put on a pretty interesting centre-back pairing of Mehtab and Bheke.

The two successfully kept a clean sheet, but couldn't operate as smoothly as Sandesh and Anwar do. They lacked chemistry, and their attacking contributions were also minimal.

With an increased amount of game time, and more games together, we hope that these problems can be solved, and that India can find another strong defensive pairing.

2. Udanta yet to reach his A-Game

Udanta Singh had a disappointing night in front of his beloved Bengaluru fans tonight. The player failed to create any good chances in the first half, and was subbed off early on in the second 45'.

Udanta couldn't make any decent passes and also wasn't able to time his runs to perfection. India failed to make any decent chances from he right flank in the first half.

1. Sahal has to learn to pass the ball early

Sahal Abdul Samad has been impressive for India in the last few games and seems to have been finding his form back. But there still remain a few flaws in his play, one of which is his delayed passing. Sahal ruined India's counter attacks quite a number of times, due to his delayed passing. The player indulges in his dribbling and trickery, as a result of which he fails to make the right pass at the right time.

This problem of his should be looked upon, and be rectified at the earliest, to take India's counter attacking gameplay to the next level.