India advanced from their FIFA World Cup 2018/AFC Asian Cup 2019 preliminary joint qualifier against Nepal, after a 0-0 draw at the Dashrat Rangasala Stadium in Kathmandu on Tuesday. The result ensured their progress following their 2-0 win in the first leg last week.Stephen Constantine made no changes to the starting eleven which took India to victory in the first leg. Nepal made one change to their line-up introducing striker Santosh Shahukhala in place of Jagjit Shrestha.Knowing that they needed to score at least two goals to progress, Nepal were the more dominant side, but India did have a couple of early chances to bury the game. Sunil Chhetri tried a long-range shot in the first minute and Robin Singh’s fifth-minute strike drifted over the goal. Nepal were in attack mode after that, and the Indian backline, especially Arnab Mondal (Atlético de Kolkata), did well to thwart the advances from the Nepalese attack.Lalrindika Ralte (Mumbai City FC) could have done much better from a Lenny Rodrigues (FC Pune City) pass in the 30th minute but could not get past Nepal defender Sandip Rai. Mondal kept Nepalese forward Bimal Gharti Magar at bay but the latter almost scored in the dying minutes of the first half.India started well in the second half but could not break the deadlock. Robin Singh put the ball into the back of the net in the 64th minute, but the goal was rightly disallowed following an infringement. India pushed on, looking for the goal to seal the win, as forward Chhetri dribbled past three players into the Nepal box but could not finish as he shot wide with his right foot in the 68th minute.Moments later, skipper Subrata Paul (Mumbai City FC) found himself hapless as Nepal’s Sandip Rai chipped his free-kick over the wall from with Bharat Khawas waiting to capitalize. However, much to Paul’s relief, Khawas’ effort came off the post.Nepal continued to dominate and press for the last quarter of an hour as Paul was forced to make a couple of good saves. India managed to hang on, however, to progress to the next round of qualification for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
