SAFF Championship: Practice, confidence, fitness key to India's shoot-out success vs Lebanon

Bengaluru, July 2 India's goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu was in the spotlight as India faced penalties against Lebanon in the semifinal of the SAFF Championship at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium.

It was the first time that India were facing penalties in over a decade, since their 5-4 victory over Cameroon in the Nehru Cup final in 2012 in New Delhi.

Thus, the 19,640-strong crowd at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium were witness to an anxious evening on Saturday as referee Sinan Hussain blew the whistle at the end of 120 minutes.

The story unfolded in the same manner on Saturday.

Gurpreet Singh's left arm kept out Hassan Maatouk's first penalty for Lebanon, and the Blue Tigers were clinical, dispatching all four of their spot-kicks to perfection in the shoot-out.

"His save gave a lot of confidence to our players, who came to take the next penalties. It was the players' decision (to step up for penalties). They have freedom. Whoever has the confidence goes up to take the penalties," said assistant coach Mahesh Gawali.

For the man of the moment, Gurpreet, it was "another magical night."

"Playing at the Kanteerava, my Bengaluru FC home ground, in national team colours is always special. I'm really proud of the grit, determination and fight the boys have shown," he said.

Shoot-outs may be rare to come by on the international stage, but the Indian custodians are no strangers to these situations, as every training session involves penalty practice.

"We're lucky to have such good penalty-takers in our team, which helps during training," said Gurpreet.

"As a goalkeeper, all I want to do is make the penalty taker's job tough. I try to stay big until the last moment, choose a side and get a hand to the ball. You can't save every penalty. But you try to know what the taker is thinking. Someone will try to trick you, someone will come with a pre-decided shot. The experience and physicality help. If I'm five-foot-four, I wouldn't have saved that penalty, for sure," he explained.

After Sunil Chhetri routinely converted his penalty, as he did in 2012, the next one to step up was Anwar Ali. The 22-year-old's mistake had cost India the win over Kuwait four days ago, but on Saturday, he was cool as a cucumber and sent the goalkeeper the wrong way to take his team another step closer to the final.

"Anwar is a brilliant talent, a top-class defender and a future star of the national team. He is very intelligent, agile, good with both feet, and his confidence level is very high," said Gawali.

But before all those nervy moments from 12 yards out, there were two hours of a tooth-and-nail fight for one elusive winning goal. Lebanon were stronger off the blocks, almost taking India by surprise with their lightning-quick start, but the hosts gradually took control after weathering the initial storm. Domination in all aspects but lack of chance conversion, however, remains a worry for the Blue Tigers.

Another reason for the Indian team doing well so far is the superb fitness of the squad.

India have played eight matches in the last 22 days, including four in the humid Bhubaneswar weather. Despite the tight schedule, there have been almost no fitness issues in the squad, and a big credit for that goes to strength and conditioning coach Luka Radman.

"A lengthy camp is always helpful. We've been together for more than 50 days. Our strength and conditioning coach Luka has done a wonderful job maintaining the players' fitness. We had no cramps and injuries in 120 minutes, and are all set for the final," said Gawali.

Having secured the win and a place in the summit clash, it's time for the Blue Tigers to rest and recover for the title clash with Kuwait on Tuesday.