Syria expectedly notched up another victory, a 1-0 verdict over Lebanon making the picture somewhat clear in the Nehru Cup football tournament.
Not only are the favourites through to the final with three wins, but they have done a favour to defending champions India by not losing to Lebanon and thus avoiding a three-way race for the second spot from the five-team league. Mohammad Alzino got the all-important goal for the highest ranked team in the tournament midway into the first session.
Alzino was put in a scoring position by Abdul Fatah Alaga, who came up with a clever header from the top of the box that shaped up perfectly for the former to give Syria the lead.
The result means that not only are Syria through, but they have knocked out Lebanon, who have finished their league engagements at four points. India are comfortably placed at six points with their last match to go against favourites Syria. Sri Lanka have just three points with only a match to go against Kyrgyzstan on Friday.
Sri Lanka will start as favourites in their last match, but even a win would tie them with India at six points, and with a five-goal deficit in goal average their prospects of progressing are bleak.
