BENGALURU: The lots have been drawn and as expected, India will not have it easy in the 2023 Asian Cup in Qatar. At the draw ceremony for the tournament on Tuesday, India was grouped alongside Australia, Syria and Uzbekistan, in Group B.
The draw is a reality check for anyone expecting the Blue Tigers to do one better than their performance in the 2019 edition when they came surprisingly close to getting out of the group. After a 4-1 victory against Thailand in their opening game, India looked on course to qualify for the knockouts, until a goal in injury time from Bahrain in the final group game put paid to their hopes. For a team that had only qualified for the Asian Cup once before in the past three decades, this was a performance that had its share of positives.
But that performance was made possible only by some clever strategising by the All India Football Federation that boosted the team’s rankings to an all-time high. Higher-ranked but beatable teams were carefully selected over the two years prior — among the teams they beat over that period were opponents as varied as Mauritius, St Kitts & Nevis, Chinese Taipei and Kenya. That handed them a spot in Pot 3 which helped India avoid stronger opponents like Oman, Palestine and Vietnam in the draw.
This time, however, India found itself in Pot 4, and by extension, with a tough draw, more reminiscent of the 2011 Asian Cup where the Blue Tigers were grouped with Australia, South Korea and Bahrain. It should not be too difficult to better that performance — India ended up losing all three matches while conceding thirteen goals. But considering the opposition, India will have to be at their very best to get even a point or two, let alone a win. Of course, nothing is impossible. This is, after all, the team that held Qatar to a goalless draw just a few months after they became Asian champions.
Of their three opponents, Syria will be India’s best bet of a point, or on their day, even a win. Though they have the quality to put any team in the tournament to task, their recent results have not been great. After finishing off their 2022 World Cup qualification with a win over Lebanon and a draw with Iraq, they lost a string of friendlies before pulling off a 3-1 win over Thailand in March. At least based on current form, they are the opponents most comparable to India in the group.
Uzbekistan have been counted amongst the best teams in Asia, even though they have never qualified for the World Cup. They are an example of how Asian football has left India behind — while they’ve never beaten India in six games, the last of these games came more than 22 years ago. Since then, they’ve risen in stature and quality. Their recent results have featured some impressive displays. After breezing through the third round of Asian Cup qualifying without conceding a single goal, they beat Cameroon and Bolivia and held the likes of Venezuela and Russia in preparatory friendlies.
Australia will be India’s toughest opponent. The last time these two teams met, coincidently in an Asian Cup encounter in Qatar in 2011, it ended in a 4-0 defeat. Their quality was on show in the World Cup when they beat Tunisia and Denmark and lost only 2-1 to eventual champions Argentina.