Ziarath The Hero Of The Penalty Shootout In the penalty shootout, the goalkeeper often has the opportunity to be the hero. How the goalkeeper performs determines the outcome of the penalty shootout.
Nepal’s goalkeeper Ziarath Sheikh had a similar opportunity in the first semi-final of the SAFF U-20 Championship on Sunday and he proved himself.
Due to his performance, Nepal reached the finals. He saved not one, but two penalties from Bhutanese players and scored the decisive penalty himself.
After Ziarath Sheikh’s brilliant performance, Nepal defeated Bhutan 4-1 in the penalty shootout and entered the finals of the SAFF U-20 Championship.
After the scheduled 90-minute match ended in a 1-1 draw, the game went directly to the penalty shootout. At ANFA Complex Satdobato, Bhutan took the lead in the 56th minute with Jetsun Dorjee’s goal. He gave Bhutan the lead by scoring a ball that the Nepali defender could not clear.
But in the 76th minute, Bhutan was reduced to ten players after Kinjang Tenjim left the field after receiving a double yellow card. After fouling Savin Ghimire of Nepal, Kinjang faced a red card along with a second yellow card. The resulting free-kick Simant gave Lakshu Thapa a short.
Where all four players who scored a penalty for Nepal scored goals. Only one player from Bhutan managed to score. Ram Thapa scored the first penalty for Nepal and took the lead. Jetsun Dorjee, who scored the first penalty for Bhutan, also scored easily to equalize 1-1.
Then Nepal’s Avinash Syangtan scored the second penalty.
Now it was goalkeeper Ziarath’s turn to become a hero. He made an excellent save by correctly judging Jigme Namgyal’s shot, who took the second penalty for Bhutan.
After that, Simant Thapa, who scored the third penalty for Nepal, also scored, and Nepal made a 3-1 lead. Ugyan Dorjee came to take the third penalty for Bhutan. His strike was saved by Ziarath by diving to the left, and Nepal came close to victory. In this situation, goalkeeper Ziarath, wearing the armband of the acting captain, himself came to shoot the fourth penalty for Nepal.
Although Ziarath saved two penalties, three players from Nepal failed to score in the penalty shootout, and Nepal lost 3-2 to India and failed to reach the final. At that time, only Kushal Deuba and Ashwin Ghorasaini scored in the penalty, while Prashant Laxam, Lakshu Thapa, and Vikram Tamang could not score in the penalty.
At that time, being the captain himself, Ziarath had the pain of being defeated. That’s why Ziarath was very happy when he became a hero in the semi-finals and defeated Bhutan. Last year, even though I saved two penalties, we lost because we couldn’t score. Even then I was wearing an armband. Even when I won now, I was wearing an armband. I am very happy”, he said.
Ziarath also said that he trained a lot this time for the penalty shootout. Head coach Urjan Shrestha also said that he has faith in the keeper in the penalty shootout. “We had faith in Ziarath.”
Now Nepal will compete for the title against the winner of the second semi-final between India and Bangladesh on Monday. The final match will be held on Wednesday.
