India routed Bhutan 4-0 in their final group league match to advance into the semi-finals of the SAFF U-15 Championship in Kathmandu on Monday.
Subho Paul scored a brace, while Subba Kushang and Xalxo Aman scored the other two as India beat their neighbours with little difficulty.
India were off to a great start with Subho scoring from the spot as early as the fourth minute after a foul inside the penalty box. Subho placed the ball to the right of the Bhutanese goalkeeper Gyeltshen Dorji to put his side ahead early into the contest.
The game stayed at 1-0 till the end of the first 45 minutes with India holding on to their slender lead despite several inroads into their goal by the opposition attack.
It then took a moment of individual brilliance from Subba to score the second for his team in the 66th minute. Intercepting a ball inside his own half, the winger ran past the entire rival defence, dribbling past three defenders to enter the box and then fired his shot into the right top corner to make it 2-0 to India.
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17 minutes later, India scored their third with Subho completing his double from another glimpse of an individual brilliance. The move once again inside India’s own half with some neat passes to move forward before Subho received a long ball on his chest. He then ran past everybody, cut-back in and scored.
The final goal came in the 89th minute with Aman tapping-in on an empty net after Bhutan custodian Dorji had rushed to clear a Harsh Patre free-kick.