India beat Real Massama on Portugal tour

Mohammad Rafi struck in the first half as India escaped with a 1-0 win over Portuguese football club Real Massama in their second practice match in the week in Lisbon.

Mohammad Rafi struck in the first half as India escaped with a 1-0 win over Portuguese football club Real Massama in their second practice match in the week in Lisbon.

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Almost all the players who played in Wednesday's drawn encounter against Casa Pia AC were rested and Thursday's playing XI included Arindam Bhattacharya in the goal and Deepak Mondal, Mahesh Gawli, N.S Manju and N. Mohanraj in the defence.

James Singh, Baldeep Singh, Mehrajuddin Wadao and Clifford Miranda were the four mid-fielders, while Abhishek Yadav and Rafi were up-front once again.

Rafi, who has been in fine form in all the practice matches, once again paved the way for the winning goal providing a perfect start to India's proceedings. The Churchill Brothers striker scored in the seventh minute after a good pass from Abhishek.

India continued to dominate in the first half, but had to go for the breather with a 1-0 lead. After halftime, four substitutions were made and Rafi and Abhishek Yadav were replaced by Baljit Sahni and Sushil Kumar Singh. Govin Singh replaced Clifford Miranda, which saw Manju shifting on the left flank. Baldeep Singh made way for Rakesh Masih in the midfield.