BENGALURU: A late own goal by Anwar Ali in the stoppage time restricted India to settle for a 1-1 draw against Kuwait after an ill-tempered South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Championship last Group A fixture on Tuesday.
Hosts, India got an upper hand just at the stroke of the half-time when Sunil Chhetri opened the scoring by converting the corner with great ease.
A corner coming from the right landed perfectly for an unmarked Sunil Chhetri inside the box, who made no mistake to guide it into the nets.
Tensions erupted in both camps during the second half when India’s head coach Igor Stimac received his second red card of the tournament.
The tensions persisted as the game continued and India’s Rahim Ali and Kuwait’s Hamad Al Qallaf were also given the send-off in the 90th minute.
With the completion of the regulation time, India were looking favourites to register a close 1-0 victory over Kuwait.
However, Kuwait then received unexpected support and equalised in the stoppage time, courtesy of an own goal by Anwar Ali.
Amrinder Singh had little opportunity to save the ball after a low cross from the right took a deflection off Anwar’s leg and landed in the far corner of the post.
India captain Sunil Chhetri was disappointed with the result but backed his teammate, Anwar, stating an error such as this can happen to anyone.
“It’s not Anwar, it is the country that conceded,” said Chhetri.
“It can happen to anyone. We didn’t even talk about it now (after the match) and we are all professional enough to not talk about it. I hope the kid shrugs it off, we all have his back as it can happen to anyone,” he added.
Following the 1-1 stalemate, both India and Kuwait remained unbeaten in the group stage but the latter occupied the top Group A standings due to superior goals scored.