Jeje Lalpekhlua celebrates with Sunil Chetri after scoring the first goal, in New Delhi, on Wednesday. (PTI)

New Delhi: India came good in the second half to beat Sri Lanka 3-0 in the concluding Group A match of the SAFF championship, at the Nehru Stadium, here on Wednesday.

All the goals came in the second half through Jeje Lalpekhlua, Sunil Chetri and an own goal by Bandara Warakagoda seconds before the final whistle. While it was Jeje’s first goal in the meet, Chetri, so far, has found the net four times and was adjudged the Man of the Match for the third time in a row.

The win took India to the semi-finals but only as the second team from the group. Afghanistan topped the group after hammering Bhutan 8-1 in the day’s first match.

Both India and Afghanistan finished on seven points but India lost the top spot because of an inferior goal difference. In the semi-finals on Friday, India will take on Maldives followed by the other semi-final between Nepal and Afghanistan.

Needing to win by more than four goals to top the group, the home side attacked vigorously from the start, but failed to find the target. While the Sri Lankans crowded the defence and went for first-time clearances, the Indians were guilty of poor finishing when opportunities came.

Playing their third match in five days, India were not able to stretch themselves fully and missed several easy opportunities. The worst offender was Chetri, who missed an open chance, a few minutes before the final whistle.

After a barren first half, Jeje opened the scoring in the 51st minute after Chetri’s powerful strike was parried away by goalkeeper Sujan Pereira. He, however, had no answer when an unmarked Jeje stepped in to slam the ball home. Chetri scored the second goal in the 69th minute when he headed in a cross from Clifford Miranda. India stepped on the pedal in the last 20 minutes and could have scored at least three more goals.

In the day’s first match, Afghanistan continued to impress and played havoc with Bhutan, the only team in the tournament to finish without any points.

Striker Balal Arezo starred for Afghanistan by scoring four goals to take his tournament tally to five.

Ata Mohammad Yamrali, Haroon Fakhrudin, Djelaludin Sharityar and Yousef Mashriqi joined the scoring list. Arezou scored in the 16th, 18th, 45th and 83rd minutes.

Bhutan, who have already crashed out of the tournament after losing 0-3 to Sri Lanka and 0-5 to India, scored the consolation goal through Chencho Gyeltshen in the 22nd minute, their only goal of the tournament.

It took just four minutes for Afghanistan to take the lead as Ata Yamir Ali scored the quickest goal in this edition of SAFF Championship after the Bhutan custodian punched away a Mohammad Esrafil free-kick.

TEAMS

India: Karanjit Singh; Nirmal Chetri, Gourmangi Singh, Mahesh Gawli and Syed Rahim Nabi; Anthony Pereira (Steven Dias, 79th), Climax Lawrence, Locus Lamhare (Jewel Raja, 71st) and Clifford Miranda; Jeje Lalpekhlua (Sushil Singh, 84th) and Sunil Chetri.

Sri Lanka: Sujan Pereira; Bandara Warakagoda, Danushka Vijesiri, Chameera Krishantha and Chathura Gunarathna; Nipuna Bandara, Nadeeka Pushpakumara, Mohammed Nazar and MNM Izzadeen; Tuwan Rizni (Shafraz Kaiz, 46th) and Mohammed Zain.

Referee: Timur Faizullin (Kyrgyzstan).