Considering the Indian men’s football team had lost their first couple of matches at the AFC Asian Cup against Australia and Uzbekistan, where they conceded five goals and scored none, hopes of qualifying for the round of 16 were minimal ahead of Tuesday’s (23 January) fixture against Syria. Despite that, the Indian football fanatics aspired to see their team conclude the campaign in Qatar with at least one point.
That, however, was not meant to be, as Igor Stimac’s men succumbed to a 1-0 defeat against the Qasioun Eagles, in Al Khor’s Al Bayt Stadium. With this, the Blue Tigers’ campaign ends with three defeats, where they could not score in nearly 300 minutes.
Although, the elusive goal could easily have arrived in only the fourth minute of the match, when winger Naorem Mahesh Singh tried to test the Syrian goalkeeper, Ahmad Madania. The latter emerged victorious in that particular battle, with a strong hand keeping the score at 0-0.
That Indian attack proved to a rarity, instead of being the norm in this match, as Syria enjoyed majority of the possession, and subsequently, created majority of the chances. The likes of Ammar Ramadan, who plays for Slovakian club Dunajska Streda, and Ezequiel Ham, who represents Independiente Rivadavia in Argentina, peppered the Indian penalty box, but could not master the last piece of the puzzle – placing the ball into the net.
There were a couple of appeals for penalty, and VAR had to be called into action on both occasions. Fortunately for India, the adjudication was in their favour. That, and some impressive saves from goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, ensured India take equality – a goalless scoreline – to the dressing room at the half-time break.
India Remain Firm Till They Can, but Eventually Cave In
Except that the Indian coach Igor Stimac was shown a yellow card and Syria continued throwing the kitchen sink at India, one of which was an Omar Khribin header which nearly opened the scoring, there were not many significant occurrences in the initial exchanges of the second half.
But in the 76th minute, the goal did arrive for Syria. Khribin slided an Alaa Al Dali into the path of Ibrahim Hesar on the left flank, who chose the wise option of playing it back to Khribin. For the veteran Al Wahda forward, who was already in a shooting position by this time, it was all about finding the perfect angle, which he did by evading Rahul Bheke. What followed was an accurate hit into the bottom corner, past an outstretched Gurpreet Singh Sandhu.
India ditched their timorous approach for a more brazen style of play in the last 15 minutes, but it was both a bit too little too late, and lacking quality. This marks only the second instance of the Indian team bowing out of an AFC Asian Cup edition with no goals to show for, having scored four goals in 2019 and three in 2011.
That said, Stimac and his men will have the opportunity of turning the tables in only two months, when they will feature in the joint 2026 FIFA World Cup & 2027 AFC Asian Cup qualification matches against Afghanistan.
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