3 min readJun 18, 2026 01:56 PM IST Barely anyone in Bengal would know about Amalfi, a town of fewer than 30,000 people nestled in the Colombian Andes. Yet, should you visit the mayor’s office of the municipality of Amalfi, you will be able to establish a connection with Bengal. Displayed prominently is a photograph of a Royal Bengal Tiger. Across the town, statues of the animal stand. Legend has it that around 1949, the beast had terrorised the region and devoured more than a thousand heads of cattle. Desperate, five men decided to hunt the tiger down, and they were successful. Historians later revealed that the animal was not a Royal Bengal Tiger, but an American jaguar. But try telling that to the inhabitants of Amalfi, who, by then, believed that they had the might to match a tiger. Of those symbolic Tigers of Amalfi, the one who roared the loudest on Wednesday was Daniel Muñoz. For 40 minutes, Uzbekistan gave little away to suggest they were debutants on football’s highest echelon. Their defensive …