India blank Yemen in U-16 meet

Amman (Jordan) : The India U-16 football team defeated Yemen 3-0 to maintain their winning streak in the five-nation WAFF U-16 Championship here on Tuesday.

Centre-back Harpreet Singh headed in the first goal in the 37th minute with two goals coming in consecutive minutes immediately after resumption to take the tie beyond Yemen's reach, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) said in a statement.

While the second goal was headed in by Ridge Demello in the 47th minute, Rohit Danu lobbed it over the rival goalkeeper a minute later, providing the perfect finish to a promising build-up.

Indian head coach Bibiano Fernandes lauded the boys for their "fantastic display".

"We are extremely proud of them. They came up with a superlative performance today and executed it to perfection. The tournament has helped us gauge where we stand and we go back much richer in experience," he stated after the match.

The Indian boys thus finished their engagements in the tournament, winning three matches and losing a close battle to Japan.

While the Indian colts had made short work of Jordan 4-0 in their opening encounter and accounted for current U-16 Asian champions Iraq in their previous match by a solitary goal, they had lost the lead and the match to Asian powerhouse Japan 1-2 in their other match.