India go down fighting to Japan

India went down fighting to Japan 2-1 in the Asian Football Confederation Under-20 Championship at the Al-Arabi Stadium in Doha, Qatar, on Saturday night.

The victory enabled Japan to clinch a berth in the quarter-finals.

India will have to beat Saudi Arabia in its concluding match of Group B on October 22 to entertain any hopes of advancing to the last eight with Japan.

Displaying fine skill and ball control, the Indians surprised the fancied Japanese and held the lion's share of the exchanges. In fact, they should have emerged with full points from the match but paid the price for some slopping defending. Both the goals they conceded were the result of momentary lapses in concentration by the defence.

Tokunaga Yuhei took advantage of some indecision in the Indian defence to slip in the first goal. Unmarked on the left wing, he dipped the ball past goalkeeper Veerasamy Kumar.

India could have restored parity two minutes before the breather but Bungo Singh's stinging free-kick sailed just over the bar.

But Singh restored parity in the 60th minute when his shot from a free-kick left the Japan defence watching helplessly as the ball entered the goal.

Sakata Daisuke sealed the fate of the Indians, heading home a quickly-taken free-kick by Kobayashi Daigo over the head of advancing keeper Veerasamy.

India had won their opening Group B match, routing Bangladesh 6-0, last Wednesday.