India, Pakistan Players Break Into Fight During SAFF Championship 2023 Match; Blue Tigers' Manager Igor Stimac Shown Red Card

Things turned ugly on the pitch and the match officials had to intervene to pacify the situation.

In not the best of advertisements for the sport, India and Pakistan footballers broke into a tussle during the dying minutes of the first half of their SAFF Championship 2023 encounter at the Sri Kanteerava Outdoor Stadium in Bengaluru. The fight broke out when India manager Igor Stimac attempted to seize the football from a player donning the Pakistani kit. The match officials had to intervene in order to calm down the players and restart the game. Stimac was given a red card, while Shahzad Anwar, the manager of Pakistan, was issued a yellow card.

As far as the on-field action is concerned, India were clinical in their performance and continued from where they left at the Intercontinental Cup. Sunil Chhetri scored a stunning hat-trick which included a 10th minute field goal as India beat Pakistan 4-0. Chhetri's field goal, which came as early as the 10th minute came after a blunder from the Pakistani keeper Saqib Hanif who lost control of the ball after Chhetri charged at him to exert some pressure. Minutes later, India were handed a penalty which he scored to put India 2-0 ahead.

It was the in the second half that India were awarded yet another penalty and Chhetri did not let the golden opportunity to score a hat-trick slip away and slotted the ball at the back of the net to complete his hat-trick. The 38-year-old became the highest active goalscorer from Asia taking his overall tally to 90 international goals. Other than the three goals from the Indian captain, Udanta Singh Kumam scored the final goal of the match.

Pakistan were not at their best in this game with most of their players missing their flight to Bengaluru and arriving just six hours before the start of the match. They made several mistakes and were even lucky to get away with a few of those, otherwise it would have been a worse result for them. As a result of the twin Group A fixtures on Wednesday, India are on top of the table while Pakistan lie at the rock bottom. Kuwait who won the other game over Nepal 3-1 are at the second place with Nepal occupying the third slot.