International Friendly: India puts up a miraculous show, salvages a draw against mighty China

XtraTime Web Desk: Stephen Constantine’s India puts up a heroic display in its first ever trip to PR China in the historic International friendly today. Sunil Chhetri and his men produced a stellar performance to salvage a 0-0 draw against the hosts in front of a chock-a-block stadium. The Blue Tigers could have won the game as well, had the luck played in the favour for the team.




India played an excellent first half and tried to upset China right from the word go. China tried to bring some positive moves in the early minutes of the game. In th 13th minute India got their first and the best chance of the game. India went forward for the first time, Chhetri passed it back to Pronay and he went diagonal to Thapa who laid the ball for an onrushing Kotal who slammed the ball goal wards but Junling parried the ball away with a sensational save.




India continued to put pressure and created another attack in the 17th minute. Chhetri won  a free-kick near the touchline and Thapa was over it. He kicked it long and on the farside for Chhetri whose boot stuck to the ground but still got his first-time shot to go over the crossbar.




India saved the danger in the 24th minute when The Chinese really built up a great attack from the right. Gurpreet pulled off a good one with his left foot! China took the attack from the right, had numbers in the box but a sudden square ball to Gao Lin and the first time shot by the 32-year-old will not go into the net!




In the second half the hosts started really well against India. The hosts went for an all out attack and Wu Lei’s shot hit the post on the 50th minute of the game. To add more armories in the attack China made two back to back changes in the next minute. India got a chance in the 56th minute of the game but Udanta shot it wide over the bar. In a couple of minutes span the visitors pressed it hard and to stop the free flowing football of India, Liu Yiming fouled Holicharan Narjari and the referee showd him a yellow card. On the 62nd minute of the game Anas came in place of Narayan Das.




In the meantime the hosts tried their best to break the deadlock as another shot from Liu Yiming rattled the crossbar. It was clearly seen that the Chinese who ranked 5 in Asia were in immense pressure while trying to score. On the 75th minute of the game Gurpreet made a brilliant save. With this brilliant show India is proving that they are continuously progressing well ahead of the AFC Asian Cup.v