2013 SAFF Championship Final
| Event | 2013 SAFF Championship | ||||||
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| Date | 11 September 2013 | ||||||
| Venue | Dasarath Rangasala, Kathmandu | ||||||
| Man of the Match | Mansur Faqiryar (Afghanistan) | ||||||
| Referee | Tayeb Hasan Shamsuzzaman (Bangladesh) | ||||||
| Attendance | 6,500+ | ||||||
The 2013 SAFF Championship Final was the final match of the 2013 SAFF Championship which took place in Nepal on Wednesday, September 11, 2013 and was officiated by Tayeb Hasan Shamsuzzaman of Bangladesh. It was the 10th installment of the tournament since its inception in 1993.
This final was the first time a final was repeated in the SAFF Championship and such this was a repeat final of the 2011 SAFF Championship in which India thrashed Afghanistan 4-0 in India. However, in this final Afghanistan won with goals coming from Mustafa Azadzoy and Sandjar Ahmadi in the 9th and 62nd minute respectively. This would be Afghanistan's first SAFF Championship win after losing in the 2011 SAFF Championship in the final to India.
India entered the 2013 SAFF Championship as the reigning champion after defeating Afghanistan in the 2011 SAFF Championship. Afghanistan's best record previous was runners-up in the 2011 SAFF Championship.
To the final, India struggled through and scraped by the group stage through head-to-edge edging out Pakistan from an own-goal by Samar Ishaq in a 1-0 win to the Indians. Later in the semi-finals, against Maldives, it took India until the 86th minute when Arnab Mondal opened the scoring to leave it a 1-0 win to proceed to the final.
Afghanistan, on the other hand, breezed by both Sri Lanka and Bhutan in the group stage with comfortable wins and a 0-0 stalement with Maldives. To proceed to the final, Afghanistan won convincingly in a 1-0 win against the hosts Nepal with the lone goal coming from Sandjar Ahmadi in the 11th minute.
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