A tournament that saw the best and worst of Indian football has finally come to a close for coach Luis Norton de Matos' side tonight as they bowed, out suffering their heaviest defeat in the tournament at the hands of the African heavyweights Ghana.
India had started quickly out of the blocks and got one of their best chances within a minute of the game, but as has been their story throughout the tournament they failed to capitalise on the opportunity and it was all mostly downhill from there, except for a few positives here and there.
Ghana made the most of India's panicky defence and cheap giveaways in possession as they thumped four goals past the hosts, two coming from their star man Eric Ayiah at 10 minutes either end of halftime, while second half substitutes Toku and Danko scored two in quick succession in the dying embers of the match as they aggravated India's misery.
We highlight the 5 important talking points from India's final match as they bid farewell to their FIFA U17 World Cup dream.
Defensive despair
Although the Indian colts managed to resist Ghana for almost most of the first 40 minutes, the goal from the Black Starlets seemed to be coming for quite a while and it was no surprise that India conceded from a lapse of defensive concentration on the 42 minute mark.
When keeper Dheeraj had parried the ball away from the initial shot, there was no one keeping a check on Ghanaian captain Eric Ayiah, who was in the right place and the right time to slide it in, a mistake that the Indian defence repeated for the second goal too.
Ayiah was left unmarked and had all the time in the world to hammer the ball into the back of the net after a cutback. Even after the two goals, there seemed to be no change in tactics put forward by Matos and by the end of the game India's misery was doubled, as Ghana thumped in two more, capitalising on more defensive errors from the boys.
India's defence seemed to be almost non existent at times, something that cost them their world cup dreams dearly.