Indian football team loses to Nepal in semi-finals

India crashed out of SAFF Women’s Championship 2024 football tournament after losing in the semi-finals to Nepal via penalty shootout at the Dasharath Stadium, Kathmandu on Sunday.

Sangita Basfore (62′) scored the game’s opening goal to set the record straight Indian women’s football team ahead but Sabitra Bhandari, Nepal’s all-time record goalscorer, equalized to ensure the match was tied 1-1 at full-time.

Nepal won the penalty shootout 4-2 to set up a final showdown against Bangladesh, who beat Bhutan 7-1 in the other semi-final. It will be a rematch of last year’s final, which Bangladesh won 3-1.

Incidentally, India, who had won all five editions of the SAFF Women’s Championship before 2023, were also knocked out by Nepal in last year’s semi-finals.

The match, played in front of a packed stadium, was a highly charged match and saw almost 70 minutes of stoppage time in chunks.

After a goalless first half, Nepal were reduced to 10 women after Rekha Poudel was given her marching orders after picking up her second yellow card in the 51st minute.

The match resumed after a short delay but was stopped again soon after India had taken the lead through Sangita Basfore’s brilliant shot from outside the box.

Nepal thought they had equalized immediately in an open net after the referee restarted the match before the Indian players could return to their own positions after their goal celebration. The goal was eventually disallowed, prompting strong protests from the home camp and the match being held up for over an hour.

Although play eventually resumed, the stoppages had taken a toll on India’s concentration in the game and eventually led to Nepal scoring the equalizer shortly after the restart, taking the match to a penalty shoot-out.