The Indian national football team suffered a 2-0 loss to Jordan in an international friendly ahead of their AFC Asian Cup qualifier at the Suheim Bin Hamad Stadium in Doha on early Sunday morning.
Munther Abu Amarah and Mohammed Abu Zrayq scored in the second half to give Jordan an easy win on the night in a game that saw the Blue Tigers disappoint as they barely managed a shot on target.
Here, we take a look at the talking points from the game.
India went into the game full of confidence considering that their talisman, Sunil Chhetri returned back to the playing XI for the first time since October 2021.
Chhetri for his part struggled on the night and looked short on match practice, with the striker failing to impose himself on the pitch. The 37-year-old’s game ended in a whimper as he was substituted in the 74th minute, with Brandon Fernandes coming on in his place.
India enjoyed possession of the ball at the start of the game, but that was as good as it got for them with their midfield trio of Anirudh Thapa, Glan Martins and Sahal Abdul Samad looking out of sync with each other.
The Blue Tigers midfield looked bereft of ideas at times on the pitch, and such were their struggles that Igor Stimac had no other choice but to bring of Thapa in order to inject some much needed energy and creativity on the pitch.
India head coach, Igor Stimac recently revealed that his side were the “favourites” to qualify from their AFC Asian Cup qualifier group and while that they may still hold true looking at their opponents – one thing is certain is that they have still have a long way to go if they are to make a dent in world football.
Their performance against Jordan showed that Stimac has a lot of work to do with the squad, and it is a regular occurrence to see them struggle against higher ranked opponents.
