BENGALURU: After an intense and entertaining battle at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium that saw India and Lebanon battle hard without scoring a goal for 120 minutes, defending champions India, powered by goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu and skipper Sunil Chhetri, advanced to the final of the SAFF Championship with a 4-2 verdict in the penalty shootout here on Saturday.
Lebanon, who replaced their goalkeeper just before the shootout, failed twice from the spot even as Gurpreet made a fine save to deny Lebanon skipper Hassan Matouk and India netted all their four chances with skipper Chhetri, Anwar Ali, Mahesh Singh and Udanta Singh on target. Lebanon's exit was confirmed when substitute Khalil Bader blasted their fourth kick wide.