A Saturday night show of late goals, boorish fans and on-field brawl

It was a dramatic evening at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata on Saturday as India and Afghanistan slugged out in a thriller, which saw three late goals being scored in the span of five minutes. It started with India’s main man Sunil Chhetri breaking the deadlock in the 86th minute, as he converted a free-kick in the most stylish manner. It charged an already electrifying atmosphere as the Salt Lake stadium sensed a victory just when a draw looked inevitable.

Also read: ‘Remove ATK and give us our Mohun Bagan back’: Protest over iconic football club felt during India vs Afghanistan

However, the joy among the over-40,000 lasted for less than two minutes as Afghanistan equalised from a corner-kick. But some nimble footwork by Ashique Kuruniyan came to India’s rescue as he engaged three opposition defenders before nudging the ball towards Sahal Abdul Samad, who then blasted the ball into the far corner to hand India a thrilling win in a crucial encounter in the final round of the Asian Cup qualifiers.

Crowd trouble

The goal definitely peaked the excitement at the stadium and one such moment was witnessed when a fan scaled the perimeter fencing and ran towards the Indian dugout before being tackled by security officials. That was not all, a handful of traveling supporters were exposed to rowdy behaviour from India fans, forcing a security personnel to intervene.

“A small group of Afghanistan fans who were present at the venue with flags got into an argument with the fans. They were cheering after Afghanistan’s equaliser and after that few fans could be seen arguing, with one in the group also getting hit. A police personnel then rushed and removed an Indian fan from the spot,” said Sagnik Saha, a spectator in the middle tier who saw what happened.

Subhranjoy Dutta, who calls himself a Mohun Bagan fan and also seated in the same stand, said: “Around 7-8 Afghanistan supporters were present and they were celebrating the equaliser. They celebrated for 10-20 seconds, people didn’t react but one or two from the group made some gestures. Following which the confrontation began.

“The fans then confronted them about the gesture, while others were shouting, ‘sit down, sit down’ and during all this commotion someone slapped an Afghan supporter on the head from behind.”

Dutta said that by the time police arrived, things had returned to how it was initially and India had once again restored their one-goal advantage by then. He also said it was surprising that home and away fans were seated together.

If that was the scene at the stands, a brawl broke out on the pitch after the final whistle which came after over five minutes of stoppage time. As India were celebrating a thrilling win, a scuffle broke out between the home team’s players and those from Afghanistan. Reserve players from Afghanistan too joined in and the matter escalated when one threw a punch at India goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu who then retaliated .

India head coach Igor Stimac was not pleased with what followed after the full-time whistle. Sharing his thoughts on the contest, which he rated as one of the best, the Croatian said at the post-match conference: “This was a drama. Many chances, good actions, 22 strong men on the pitch fighting for each centimeter of the field. I don’t remember when was the last time I enjoyed one football game like this. We showed character, we showed resilience, we showed willingness, and good spirits on the pitch from the very first second.

“Congratulations to Afghanistan for the great fight. Not after the game. This one I don’t like, during the game they were a great opponent to enjoy the football today.”

Stimac was proud of the character the team displayed. “We were not Blue Tigers before I came here. Today India were Blue Tigers and they need to keep being that Tigers on the pitch,” he said.

Afghanistan coach Anoush Dastgir was not sure how things snowballed into fisticuffs. “I don’t know what happened at the end, but I’ll go back and talk to the team and find out,” he said.