India beat Pakistan 3-2 in their SAFF Championship 2026 opener in Dhaka on 5 November. Suhail Ahmad Bhat scored twice and Manglenthang Kipgen once to put India 3-0 up at half-time. Pakistan scored through Najeeb Ullah and Alamgir Ali Khan Ghazi in stoppage time. India play Maldives on 11 November.

The result

India opened their SAFF Championship 2026 defence with a 3-2 win over Pakistan at the National Stadium in Dhaka on Thursday 5 November. They led 3-0 at half-time, with Suhail Ahmad Bhat scoring twice and Manglenthang Kipgen once. Pakistan scored twice in stoppage time to make the finish tense. The official report gave the attendance as 2,300.

The AIFF report gives Kipgen’s goal at 31’ and Ghazi’s at 90+4’. We use the official match report’s 32’ and 90+3’.

First half: Bhat and Kipgen put India 3-0 up

Bhat opened the scoring on 13 minutes. Muhammad Suhail drove down the left after a throw-in and crossed low into the box. An earlier effort by Bhat had been ruled out for offside.

He doubled the lead on 19 minutes. Abhishek Suryavanshi played a line-breaking pass and Bhat finished first time past goalkeeper Yousuf Butt. Kipgen made it 3-0 after Noufal PN carried the ball through midfield and played him in behind. Right before half-time, Bhat’s left-footed shot from outside the box went just wide, which would have been his hat-trick.

Second half: a missed penalty and a late scare

Pakistan’s Shayak Dost sent a penalty over the crossbar after Suryavanshi fouled Hayyaan Khattak in the box. India substituted freely, and Adison Singh Thokchom was denied one-on-one by Butt. Kipgen and Farukh Choudhary also had efforts that missed the target.

Pakistan then scored twice in stoppage time. Najeeb Ullah headed in a left-wing cross from Junaid Shah at 90+1, and Ghazi finished acrobatically from a right-wing cross by McKeal Abdullah at 90+3. India held on for the three points.

The numbers

365Scores’ figures were captured at 68 minutes, with India 3-0 up. They are not full-time numbers, as Pakistan’s late goals came after that point.

Yellow cards, from the official report: Haris Ali Zeb (39’) and Mohib Ullah (69’) for Pakistan, and N N Jayantha Prabhu (48’) for India.

Lineups

India started Arsh Anwer Shaikh (goalkeeper), Bijoy Varghese (captain), Abhishek Suryavanshi, Muhammed Uvais, Suhail Ahmad Bhat, Muhammad Suhail, Ricky Shabong, Manglenthang Kipgen, Noufal PN, N N Jayantha Prabhu and Hmingthanmawia. Head coach Naushad Moosa made five substitutions: Adison Singh (46’), Farukh Choudhary and Ebindas Yesudasan (62’), Nathan Asher (71’) and Khaiminthang Lhungdim (76’).

Pakistan, coached by Nolberto Solano, started Yousuf Ijaz Butt (goalkeeper and captain), Mohib Ullah, Mohammad Hayyaan Khattak, Alamgir Ali Khan Ghazi, Shayak Dost, Abdul Rehman, Syed Ali Raza, Ali Uzair Mahmood, Haris Ali Zeb, Waqar Ehtisham and Haseeb Ahmed Khan.

Who Pakistan are under Solano

Pakistan came to Dhaka as the lowest-ranked side in the tournament, 198th in the FIFA rankings as of July 2026. Their head coach is Nolberto Solano, 50, who won 95 caps for Peru and played more than 170 Premier League games for Newcastle United. He was assistant to Ricardo Gareca with Peru from 2015 to 2022, including the 2018 World Cup campaign, and took over from Stephen Constantine in July 2025.

His plan, as previewed by Khel Now before the game, was a compact defensive shape and counter-attacks, with a predicted 5-3-2. Solano said before the match that the strongest part of his squad is its defenders. Against India that plan did not hold: Pakistan conceded three before half-time and picked up both of their yellow cards in defence (Haris Ali Zeb 39’, Mohib Ullah 69’).

Pakistan’s recent form is mixed. In June they won the Diamond Jubilee International Football Tournament in Malé, finishing unbeaten without conceding, and beat Afghanistan 2-0 in the final. Harun Hamid was top scorer with three goals. It ended a long wait for silverware. Away from that tournament the results were harder: a 5-0 loss to Syria in November 2025 and a 4-0 loss to Thailand at the FIFA ASEAN Cup, which Solano cited himself as a lesson in concentrating for 90 minutes.

Where Pakistan’s players come from

Pakistan have no active domestic league, according to The Express Tribune, and their camp for this tournament began on 26 October with departure for Dhaka planned for 2 November, about nine days together. That shapes who plays. Solano said diaspora players could not join the squad for this tournament because it falls outside the FIFA international window, and added that Pakistan would make no excuses and believe in their local players.

One 2026 squad listing from National Football Teams shows seven of 16 listed players at clubs outside Pakistan: one in the Maldives, one in the UAE and five in Bangladesh. Three of the starters against India (Shayak Dost, Alamgir Ali Khan Ghazi and Hayyaan Khattak) appear on that list as Brothers Union players in Dhaka, and Ali Uzair Mahmood as a PWD player there.

The diaspora route is clearly visible in the wider squad. McKeal Abdullah, born in Nottingham to a family of Pakistani heritage, set up Ghazi’s goal from the right. Umar Nawaz, born in Peshawar and raised in England through the Wolves and Wrexham academies, scored in both the Maldives and Afghanistan games in June, and Khel Now flagged him as a danger to India’s defence. Abdullah Iqbal, who was born and raised in Copenhagen and captained Pakistan under Constantine, plays in Sweden’s Allsvenskan with Mjällby. He and Easah Suliman are both on the 28-man list but did not start in Dhaka. Goalkeeper Yousuf Butt, who wore the armband against India, was also named among Pakistan’s foreign-born players in 2023.

Pakistan’s late goals came from the two ends of that mix: Najeeb Ullah from a cross by Junaid Shah, who plays at home, and Ghazi from McKeal Abdullah’s cross.

India’s side of the context

India were also not at full strength. The Week reported that the AIFF did not send its first team because of two friendlies against New Zealand on 12 and 15 November, with the squad led by U23 coach Naushad Moosa. Before this match the sides had met 29 times, with India winning 16 and Pakistan 4, according to Khel Now. The last meeting was a 4-0 India win in Bengaluru in 2023, with a Sunil Chhetri hat-trick.

Against that background, a 3-0 half-time lead with a young squad was a solid start. The two late goals showed that Pakistan will keep trying, and that India will want a cleaner finish against Maldives.

Naushad Moosa: the coach on the touchline

Naushad Moosa, 53, is a former India international who has built his career in youth and development coaching. He started as a youth coach at Mumbai FC in 2008 and later worked at Pune FC and Air India. At Bengaluru FC he was Indian assistant coach, reserve team head coach and head of the academy, and he served as interim head coach in 2021. He was also academy manager at RF Young Champs.

Moosa joined NorthEast United in June 2023 as Indian assistant coach, reserve team coach and head of youth development, and Khel Now now lists him as the club’s technical director. The AIFF made him India U23 head coach in May 2025, and he took charge on 1 June 2025. His U23 side beat Bahrain and Brunei but lost to Qatar and narrowly missed qualifying for the AFC U23 Asian Cup.

His stated approach is to play proactively, stay compact without the ball and attack with quality, and he talks often about a winning mentality. Against Pakistan, India scored three before the break and made five substitutions, and Pakistan only scored in stoppage time. He has also pushed for young players to get regular minutes, suggesting the AIFF back an I-League side for that purpose, and nine of his U23 players were named in a senior provisional squad last year.

What comes next

India face Maldives on 11 November at the National Stadium in Dhaka, their last Group B game. Maldives play Pakistan on 8 November. The top two in each group reach the semi-finals on 14 November, and the final is on 17 November.

— PurePlay India Sports Desk. Source: AIFF match report and official match report; 365Scores. Photos: Veto and Instagram.