India’s great run of a time at the AFC U-16 Football Championship in Kuala Lumpur comes to a halt as the U-16 boys were defeated by Korea by 1-0. Had India won the game, they would have had a chance to qualify for the Under-17 FIFA World Cup which is scheduled to happen in Peru next year. The game started off with no goals scored by either side until the halftime. Niraj Kumar, India’s goalkeeper from Jammu Kashmir proved to be a hero for India as he made about seven saves to deny a lead to Korea. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that the Indian defence stood tall against Korea in the first half. The Indian defence had not conceded a single goal in 315 minutes.

At the 49th minute, South Korea was given a free-kick which could not be conceded into a goal for Korea. Finally, on the 67th minute, Kora took the lead with 1-0. Post this, the Indians laid more emphasis on attacking and even introduced a substitution in the form of Sailo in place of Gibson Singh. With three more minutes added to the game, India could not concede a single goal and then went down to Korea by 1-0. India Beat Pakistan 4-0 in AFC U-16 Women's Championship Qualifiers Football Match.

However, Indian football congratulated the youngsters for their commendable effort and wrote a message for the boys and the coach on social media. “Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm."- Winston Churchill U-16 @IndianFootball team and coach @23ibiano you are already heroes and the country is proud of you. Take a bow! #StarsOfTomorrow #BackTheBlue #WeAreIndia #IndianFootball,” read the tweet.

India had been unbeaten in the tournament prior to playing against Korea. The Indian boys have won over Vietnam and had had draws against Iran and Indonesia in the group stages.  Placed in Group D, South Korea, on the other hand, had won three group games and topped the table with nine points.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 01, 2018 08:25 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).