By IANS,
New Delhi: India’s under-13 squad has returned home after an impressive performance in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Youth Festival in the Iranian city of Yazd where three footballers — striker Lalremruata and midfielders Lalmuanzova and Sandip Bhattacherjee — were declared the ‘Best Players’.
Midfielder Lazim Ali was declared the ‘Most Skillful Player’.
In the first match of the second round, India blanked Bhutan 7-0 with Firozuddin Mollah scoring a hat-trick and Basu Mukherjee netting a brace while Lalremruata completed the rout. In the second, India thumped Sri Lanka 8-0 as Mollah again scored a hattrick, Rajesh Goswami scored a brace while Mukherjee and Sandip Bhattcharjee scored a goal apiece.
In the last match, the colts conceded one in each half to go down 0-2 to hosts Iran.
Manager Satheevan Balan was pleased with the performance of the boys.
“It was the first time the kids played at such a big platform. But they stayed composed,” he said.
“There was a healthy turn-out in all the matches and our performance was appreciated by all,” said assistant coach Tarun Roy.