It is often said that it takes twenty-one days to create a new habit.’India.

Fifteen days after the first two rounds, which ended in a dismal 0-0 and then a 0-2 loss in the Hero Intercontinental Cup, Aleksandar Ilic’s men again failed to break the mark of the Indians who had chased them during their stay in the subcontinent.

But the latter would be wrong to hide behind these kinds of superstitions, as their lack of accuracy in the last move was again evident from the first minute of regulation time to the last overtime. That’s a total of 300 minutes, 5 hours flat, spent on the lawns without ever managing to shake Gurpreet Sandhu’s net.

Offensive clumsiness

The start of the match, however, seemed to bode well. The outcome of the game would have been different had Nader Matar, who was overlooked by the Indian defense at the far post, had not prodded fine midfielder Zein Farran into the Bangalore skies. Found by Hassan Maatouk at the surface entrance moments later, Farran then missed one-on-one with the Blue Tigers keeper, who again distinguished himself when he came out of the sky with a long free kick from Maatouk, the captain.

Apart from these three situations, there isn’t much you can do. It seems Cedars are most often on the hook, having to rely on either Mehdi Khalil’s saves (set at home for the second year in a row after a 1-0 success against Maldives in the group stage) or on the clumsiness of the Indian attackers who also sometimes miss the unthinkable. inevitable, to take the game to overtime.

The extra half hour at times looked like an Indian-led Lebanese home siege, boosted by the crowd of 20,000 in attendance at the bay of Bangalore’s Sree Kanteerava Stadium.

Despite several Lebanese response attempts, the shootout looked less sinister for the Cedars. But in this minor match it was the Blue Tigers who proved to be the most skilful, achieving perfection while capitalizing on the failures of Maatouk, early on in the session, then Khalil Bader on the Lebanese side.

The locals will find Kuwait in the final on Tuesday, who beat Bangladesh (1-0) early. A historical highlight, the Lebanese will be able, if they so desire, to attend it from the stands, as they will not be leaving India until next Wednesday, having been unable to book flights in the previous days.