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IMAGE: Afghanistan’s gamers have a good time profitable their FIFA World Cup Qualifier match towards India in Guwahati on Tuesday. Pictures: ANI
Indian soccer hit a brand new low with a gut-wrenching 1-2 defeat to lower-ranked Afghanistan within the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers in Guwahati on Tuesday, the consequence reflecting the mess the game presently finds itself within the nation.
Coming into the house leg match of the qualifiers because the fancied crew, the 117-ranked India took the lead within the thirty seventh minute, when talisman Sunil Chhetri struck his 94th worldwide objective in his landmark one hundred and fiftieth match.
Nevertheless, the Afghans hit again within the second half with objectives from Rahmat Akbari (71st minute) and Sharif Mukhammad (88th), leaving the packed home on the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium heartbroken after one more failure.
Indian soccer has fared worse prior to now. Who can overlook the embarrassing defeat, by the same margin, to tiny pacific nation Guam in 2015, once they confronted off in a 2018 World Cup Qualifier.
That reverse got here towards a rustic with a inhabitants of merely two lakh individuals, forcing the sport’s stakeholders in India to overview the loss.
IMAGE: Sunil Chhetri scored a objective in his one hundred and fiftieth match however India went down 1-2 towards Afghanistan within the 2026 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers on Tuesday. {Photograph}: Indian Soccer Staff/X
These working the sport refuse to be taught from the errors made prior to now and if Tuesday’s match towards the 158-ranked crew is any indication, they haven’t taken the corrective measures required to raise the game from the abyss it slipped into following extended interval of inconsistency and detached outcomes when it mattered probably the most.
Usually, it seems as if solely Chhetri is popping up for a sport and his teammates relying fully on his goal-scoring prowess to see the crew via.
There isn’t any new striker on the horizon with a capability and the sport to succeed Chhetri, who will flip 40 on August 3.
Who after Chhetri? It’s a query that has been haunting Indian soccer for some time.
In line with head coach Igor Stimac, the shortage of longer preparatory camps is among the components answerable for the nationwide crew’s failure to ship in massive tournaments, and the Croatian World Cup semi-finalist has usually been at loggerheads with the All India Soccer Federation (AIFF) owing to his inclination to precise sturdy views on a public platform.
On the eve of the match, Stimac had mentioned he would resign from the put up if he did not take India to the third spherical of the Phrase Cup Qualifiers, one thing the nation has by no means achieved.
If the issues on the sphere aren’t sufficient, the game can also be marred by points off it with AIFF president Kalyan Chaubey being accused of siphoning off cash from the federation’s exchequer and utilizing mother or father physique’s funds for private bills by its former principal authorized advisor Nilanjan Bhattacharjee, who had been terminated from his providers.
The outcomes however, the AIFF bosses aren’t able to admit that every one’s not effectively in Indian soccer.
In his landmark sport, Chhetri did what was anticipated of him and located the again of the online from the spot after Haroon Amiri dealt with the ball contained in the field in India’s residence leg match within the second spherical of the joint qualifiers for the World Cup and 2027 AFC Asian Cup.
Attacking on the counter with three strikers upfront, Afghanistan equalized as Akbari restored parity within the 71st minute after he shot from exterior the field and the ball went via the legs of Rahul Bheke after a deflection to make it 1-1.
Catastrophe struck the Indians when a charging Gurpreet Singh was proven a yellow card and Sharif transformed the resultant penalty to provide his crew a 2-1 lead with simply two minutes left in regulation time.
Earlier, Afghanistan goalkeeper Ovays Azizi guessed it proper however the 39-year-old Chhetri packed sufficient energy in his shot to beat the visiting custodian, a lot to the delight of the group that thronged the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium in anticipation of a positive efficiency kind their much-loved footballer.
After a quick section of relentless end-to-end assaults, Chhetri’s strike separated the 2 groups on the half time and India held on to the lead till Rahmat Akbari equalised and Mukhammad put the guests in lead, a strike which might finally go on to sprint Indian hopes as Afghanistan earned three factors from the match.
Lengthy earlier than that, Liston Colaco got here near doubling India’s lead. However he failed to regulate the ball because the Afghans managed to retrieve it from him.
Proper at first of the match, Manvir Singh missed a straightforward likelihood to place India forward however his shot off a rebound, after a Chhetri shot rattled the woodwork, flew over the online.
Stimac made three substitutions and introduced Anirudh Thapa, Naorem Mahesh and Lallianzuala Chhangte instead of Brandon Fernandes, Liston Colaco and Chhetri.
However, these modifications did little to increase India’s dominance and as a substitute, the guests discovered the equalizer. The more serious was in retailer for India because the guests put one other one previous a hapless Sandhu to interrupt Indian hearts.
India and Afghanistan drew the primary leg 0-0 in Abha, Saudi Arabia on March 22.
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