United News of Bangladesh

Bangladesh U-17 team were eliminated from the six-nation SAFF U-17 Championship losing to defending champions India 2-1 in the first semifinal at the Racecourse International Stadium in Colombo, Sri Lanka on Monday.India will play the final on Wednesday (Sept 14) against the winners of Group B champions Nepal and Group A runners-up and hosts Sri Lanka, who were scheduled to face each other in the 2nd semifinal on Monday night.After a barren first half in the day's match, Gangte scored both the goals for India in a span of only eight minutes--first in the 51st minute and 2nd in the 59th minute (2-0). Also read: AFC U-20 Asian Cup: Bangladesh hold stronger Bahrain to a goalless drawMirajul Islam, who made a hattrick in the previous match against the Maldives, scored the lone goal for Bangladesh in the 63rd minute from a penalty.Earlier, Bangladesh smartly booked a seat for the semifinal as the Group A champions with all-win record securing full six points from straight two matches outplaying hosts Sri Lanka by 5-1 goals in the first match and crushed the Maldives by 5-0 goals in their 2nd and last group match. Also read: SAFF U-17: Bangladesh to play holders India in first semifinal on MondayHolders India managed a semifinal berth as the Group B runners up securing three points from two matches after beating Bhutan by 3-0 goals in the first match and lost to Nepal by 1-3 goals in the last group encounters.