India dished out a gritty show however suffered a 0-3 drubbing in opposition to dominant Asian champions Qatar of their second match of the 2026 FIFA World Cup second spherical qualifiers in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday.
Qatar would have received by a much bigger margin had they not missed a number of possibilities whereas dominating all through the 90 minutes on the Kalinga Stadium.
The visiting aspect scored by Moustafa Tarek Mashal (4th minute), Almeoz Ali (forty seventh) and Yusuf Adurisag (86th).
India, who have been searching for inspiration from their well-known 0-0 draw in opposition to the identical opponents 4 years in the past, might barely create scoring possibilities. They did get a few alternatives on the fag finish of the primary half, however wasted them.
Igor Stimac’s workforce remains to be in rivalry to complete second in Group A and qualify for the third spherical for the primary time after a 1-0 win over Kuwait of their away match on November 16.
The Indian defence was uncovered fairly early into the match as they conceded a objective within the fourth minute itself.
Off a nook, three Qatar gamers exchanged passes contained in the Indian field however not one of the house aspect defenders might contact the ball. Moustafa Tarek Mashal then despatched a low right-footed shot which beat goalkeeper Amrinder Singh, who was fielded by Igor Stimac instead of Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, all finally ends up.
Akram Afif missed three possibilities which allowed India to enter the breather only one objective down.
Afif did not hit the goal within the second minute with simply the Indian goalkeeper in entrance of the put up. He additionally failed to seek out the goal within the 14th, twenty second and twenty sixth minutes.
First objective scorer Mashal’s free header was saved by Amrinder.
Their backs to the wall, India tried to hit on the counter they usually received two effective possibilities, and will have restored parity from the second.
Then, Udanta Singh and Anirudh Thapa had a pleasant one-touch neat change of passes however Lalengmawia Ralte did not direct his shot correctly from the sting of the field.
Three minutes from the break, Thapa wasted a neater likelihood as he had solely the Qatar goalkeeper Meshaal Barsham to beat after the ball landed on him following a defensive mistake. However Thapa someway might solely produce a weak low shot which missed the put up by a large margin.
If the fag finish of the primary half noticed some fightback from India, Qatar nipped it within the bud by doubling the lead within the second minute of the second half (forty seventh minute of the match) with their prolific striker Almeoz Ali discovering the goal.
Ali had scored 4 objectives in Qatar’s 8-1 hammering of Afghanistan of their earlier match.
Thapa was taken off within the 63rd minute and Sahal Abdul Samad got here in his place. Simply two minutes later, Suresh Singh discovered him contained in the Qatar field with a superb supply however Samad’s left-footed shot was broad of the far put up.
4 minutes from regulation time, Qatar made it 3-0 (86th minute) with Yusuf Adurisag heading house after connecting a cross from Mohammed Albayati.
India subsequent play their 2026 World Cup qualifiers match in opposition to Afghanistan on the impartial venue of Dushanbe, Tajikistan on March 21 subsequent yr.
—PTI
