New Delhi: The Blue Tigers, after fighting toe to toe in the first half, despite the early goal disadvantage, flattened out in the second half as the Asian Giant Qatar secured a comfortable 3-0 victory over the hosts on Tuesday.
Indian football team who were out to secure the first win against the Qataris, found the mountain too big to climb, as their 2019 nil-nil draw still remains their best performance against the 2022 FIFA World Cup hosts.
A brave fight from the #BlueTigers in Bhubaneswar wasn’t enough to get a result against the Asian champions.#INDQAT ⚔️ #FIFAWorldCup 🏆 #IndianFootball ⚽ pic.twitter.com/EE3uOVNlKc
— Indian Football Team (@IndianFootball) November 21, 2023
The loss also means that the Blue Tigers’ unbeaten 15 matches run at their home turf, is now officially broken.
Qatar with this win moved to 6 points, and are now the undisputed table toppers of their group, while with India losing and Kuwait securing 4-0 win over Afghanistan, the Blue Tigers have now slipped to the number 3 spot in their group.
Hon’ble CM Sri @Naveen_Odisha, alongside @FIFAcom‘s Chief of Global Football Development, Arsene Wenger, inaugurated the AIFF-FIFA Football Academy in Bhubaneswar during the #IndiavsQatar match. It was a proud moment for me to witness this milestone. #OdishaSports pic.twitter.com/UDC4FGoebL
— Tusharkanti Behera (@btushar02) November 22, 2023
However, all is not lost for the Blue Tigers, as they still have 4 matches still to go in round 2 of the AFC World Cup qualifiers and winning 3 of the 4, will be more than enough for them to qualify for the AFC 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers round three and as well as the AFC Asian Cup 2027.
As it happened
The match between India and Qatar was a fast-paced match, as the Qatari side was handed over an opening in the 2nd minute of the game itself, when Akram Afif almost put one past, with a cross from Almoez, but the shot went wide giving Indian fans a momentary relief.
However, Qatar kept the pressure on and finally in the fourth minute with the help of Afif’s pinpoint corner kick and a rather shabby Indian defense, Moustafa banged the first shot over the goal line giving his side a 1-0 lead.
After the first goal, throughout the first half team, India kept creating goal opportunities with Sunil Chettri and Aniruddh Thapa up front, but could not convert any of them into goals, ending the first half 0 to 1 in Qatar’s favour.
In the second half, the visitors took full control, as with just 2 minutes into the half due to Amrinder Singh one more fumble in the nets saw Qatar’s forward Almoez strike one in to double their lead.
🚨 Almoez Ali scores the second goal of Qatar vs India pic.twitter.com/UxKM2yukgE
— Christian2002 (@Christian126829) November 21, 2023
The final nail in the coffin came in the 86th minute when Yousuf made the score line 3-0 with a perfect header, closing down any chances of a comeback for the Blue Tigers.
