Saturday, the 1st^uh July 2023, Lebanon and India face each other on the football field for the third time in less than a month. After the recent Intercontinental Cup (June 9-18), where the two nations neutralized (0-0) in the group stage – round robin – before India won (2-0) in the final, Cedars and Indians meet on Saturday afternoon in the last four of the SAFF Cup. The Indians again won against the Lebanese, but this time not without difficulty (0-0 after extra time, 4-2 on penalties), through to the final Tuesday 4th July. Lebanon, for its part, came very close to the feat.

In the other semifinal of the day, which was against Kuwait against Bangladesh in the afternoon, it was the Gulf nation that emerged victorious from the confrontation with the South Asian nation by a measly goal (1-0). Kuwait will therefore play India in the final. The tournament doesn’t schedule matches for 3^e places, Lebanon and Bangladesh are thus definitively eliminated.

Beautiful course

Lebanon and Kuwait have been invited to participate in the 2023 South Asian Football Federation (South Asian Football Federation, abbreviation SAFF) championship, which was held in Bangalore in central India, specifically to compensate for Sri Lanka’s absence, being banned from all competitions for one year by International Federation of Association Football (FIFA). The championship, commonly known as the SAFF Cup, started on Thursday 22 June with the group stage and therefore had to end on Tuesday 4 July with the final. This international tournament is played in the form of a competition with two groups of four teams each (eight countries in total). Lebanon was drawn into Pool B with Maldives, Bangladesh and Bhutan; while for group A, it includes Kuwait, India (host country), Nepal and Pakistan.

Despite being knocked out at the semi-final stage, Lebanon is doing well in this competition: they came out of the first round (group stage) unbeaten and top of the table (9 points), with three wins in three matches. He had beaten Bangladesh (2-0) earlier in the tournament, then he dominated Bhutan (4-1) before eliminating the Maldives (1-0). In the top four, unfortunately she fell even stronger than him…