\n
Around 12,000 football fans gathered at the Golden Jubilee Stadium to witness India win the 7th South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) U-19 Championship, defeating Bangladesh 4-3 in a penalty shootout after the match ended in a 1-1 draw in regulation time.<\/p>\n
Bibiano Fernandes’ boys entered the championship as clear favourites, backed by a passionate home crowd, although Bangladesh – the defending champions – proved a formidable opponent.<\/p>\n
India had a dominant tournament, thrashing Sri Lanka 8-0 and Nepal 4-0 in the group stage, and overcoming Maldives 3-0 in the semifinals, thrilling spectators with their performance.<\/p>\n
Bangladesh lived up to its reputation as a footballing powerhouse of South Asia, remaining unbeaten in the tournament\u00a0 with draws against Maldives and victories over Bhutan and Nepal.<\/p>\n
The SAFF, comprising Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, is a regional subsidiary of the Asian Football Confederation.<\/p>\n
This year, the Arunachal Pradesh Football Association hosted the event under the aegis of the All India Football Federation. It was the second time Arunachal hosted a major football event, the first being the Santosh Trophy. With a football-crazy crowd and sold-out stands, it’s only a matter of time before Yupia becomes a regular venue for national and international fixtures.<\/p>\n
If nearby stadiums in the region are further developed to accommodate multiple simultaneous matches, the Arunachal Pradesh Football Association – with support from the state government – will be well-positioned to host more such events.<\/p>\n
For now, the success of the tournament deserves to be celebrated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Around 12,000 football fans gathered at the Golden Jubilee Stadium to witness India win the 7th South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) U-19 Championship, defeating Bangladesh 4-3 in a penalty shootout after the match ended in a 1-1 draw in regulation time. Bibiano Fernandes’ boys entered the championship as clear favourites, backed by a passionate home […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-264277","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-editorial"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264277\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}