India to Face Nepal and Sri Lanka in Group B: SAFF U19 Championship 2025 Draw Completed

India has been placed in Group B alongside Nepal and Sri Lanka for the SAFF U19 Championship 2025, which will be hosted at the Golden Jubilee Stadium in Yupia, Arunachal Pradesh. The tournament is scheduled to take place from May 9 to 18, 2025. The stadium, which also hosted the Santosh Trophy final round last year, is set to welcome some of the top U19 men's teams in the region. In Group A, Maldives, Bhutan, and Bangladesh have been drawn together. The teams were seeded in three pots based on the latest FIFA men's rankings as of December 2024 for the draw. The top two teams from each group will advance to the semi-finals, scheduled for May 16, with the final set to take place on May 18. It promises to be an exciting tournament with some fierce competition expected amongst the young up-and-coming talents from the South Asian region.

India are the defending champions, having beaten Pakistan 3-0 in the final of the 2023 edition held in Kathmandu.

In 2024, the tournament was held for the U20s, where India lost to Bangladesh on penalties in the semi-finals.

This will be the fourth time India will host an age-group SAFF competition after U20 men's (Bhubaneswar 2022), U18 women's (Jamshedpur 2022) and U15 men's (Kalyani 2019).

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India's fixtures: May 9: Sri Lanka vs India May 13: India vs Nepal May 16: Semi-finals May 18: Final. 

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