Sunil Chhetri scored the equaliser

Srinagar: India avoided a big embarrassment on the soccer pitch on Wednesday when they scraped past Bhutan 2-1 in the semi-finals of the SAFF Cup in Male.

In the final, India will meet Maldives who beat Sri Lanka by a solitary goal in the other semi-final in Colombo. India beat Maldives 1-0 in a group league encounter earlier in the tournament.

Considered the whipping boys of world football, Bhutan — who are placed 196 among 199 nations in the Fifa rankings — not only held the defending champions 1-1 at the end of regulation time, but also forced India to wait till the last minute of extra time to get the match-winner.

Going by the trend of the match, Bhutan were distinctly unlucky at not being able to take the match into the tie-breaker. Just when it looked like India would not be able to avoid the shoot-out, stopper back Gourmangi Singh scored the winner off a free kick seconds before the end of extra time.

While the Bhutan players were heart broken, the celebrations in the Indian bench had to be seen to be believed. The technical support staff in the Indian bench, barring chief coach Bob Houghton, jumped around in a manner as if they had scored a goal in the World Cup final.

Ten years ago, in the SAF Games in Nepal, I.M. Vijayan scored India’s fastest ever international goal when he found the Bhutan net less than 30 seconds after the start.

On Wednesday, it was a completely different scenario as Bhutan tormented India time and again and finally took the lead in the 19th minute through Kinley Dorji, who got past Dipak Mondal before beating Subrata Paul under the bar.

A stunned India came back strongly to find the equaliser in the 30th minute through Sunil Chhetri, but that was all they could manage. Devoid of any plan and understanding, India played aimless soccer that allowed their opponents to call the shots.

The match turned out to be a nightmare for N.P. Pradeep who missed a couple of gilt-edged opportunities. Pradeep’s header of a Steven Dias corner was saved on the goalline after the breather while Bhaichung Bhutia’s effort from a narrow angle was off target.