Anwar Ali has been one of the standout players for India this year. He has delivered great performances at the back while partnering with Sandesh Jhingan and has shown that even without him, he has the maturity to keep opponent attackers at bay.
Indian team assistant coach Mahesh Gawli feels the youngster will be a ‘top class defender’ for India in the upcoming years. The young centre-back paired up with Mehtab Singh in the SAFF Championships 2023 semifinals against Lebanon. In Jhingan’s absence, the duo showed character in nullifying the Lebanese attackers and dragging the game to penalties, where Gurpreet Singh Sandhu did the rest.
He made a mistake against Kuwait right at the end of the match as he conceded an own goal and India had to share the spoils with Kuwait in a match that they were winning. But without paying much attention to the matter, Anwar Ali has moved on and delivered a top performance against Lebanon in the semifinals.
“Anwar Ali has a brilliant talent in him and he is the future star of the national team. He is very sensible, intelligent and good with both feet. He is agile and his confidence level is very high. He will be a top class defender in the future,” Mahesh Gawli stated at the press conference ahead of the final.
The 22-year-old also showed great composure as he stepped up to take the second penalty kick for India in th tiebreaker and he sent the goalkeeper the wrong way with aplomb. Eventually, India converted all of their spot-kicks as Gurpreet also made the decisive save.
“Gurpreet penalty saves were very nice (in the tie breaker). That gave us confidence and for the other players who took the penalties (later on). I think Gurpreet was very good in goal,” Gawli added.
The first quarter of the match was dominated by Lebanon as they created some chances but India held their nerves and gradually grew into the game. Gawli credited his players for seeing through that passage of play.
“They had a plan. In the first 15 minutes, you could see they were very fast, very quick. They were going to the wings and they had a good plan. Those 15 minutes, we (were) a little hot-headed. But our boys controlled the game [after that], we came up and we slowly got our confidence back.” the Indian team assistant coach concluded.
The Blue Tigers will face Kuwait in the SAFF Championships finals. India will be aiming to extend their record tally to nine titles.
