Qatar game, a reality check that was due for Blue Tigers
BENGALURU: IN the end, it turned out to be the reality check that was due. Before the Indian football team played Asian champions Qatar in their second game of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, there were murmurs over whether a result was there to be had. Fuelling the optimism was India’s 12-game unbeaten run in 2023 followed by a win at Kuwait in their opening game of the qualifiers.
But any such hopes were misplaced as the Blue Tigers looked every bit the minnows in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday. While they did have chances to rustle the net themselves, a 0-3 scoreline could have been a lot worse, thanks to some unconvincing performances at the back.
on Tuesday | DEBADATT A MALLICK
India will not play another game before the 2024 Asian Cup in January and this result was perhaps a reminder to calibrate expectations. Australia and Uzbekistan await. The former won two games in the 2022 World Cup. The latter has such a strong football culture that their U17 team just beat England to qualify for the quarterfinals of the ongoing U17 World Cup, a tournament for which India is yet to qualify on their own merit.
India coach Igor Stimac said just as much in his post-match press conference. “For us, the important thing is the World Cup qualifiers,” he said. “Knowing that we are not going to get enough time for the Asian Cup, I do not see the Asian Cup as an important tournament for us. I don’t want my players to get injured there. That is all I am going to take care of, because three games against such big opponents like Australia, Uzbekistan and Syria; we might do some things well and we are going to fight. But I am not worried about that. I need to make sure we get enough points in the group in our World Cup qualifiers. So we make sure that we have another five to six home games in the third round here. And that will be a huge benefit for Indian football for the future.”
Stimac’s words can be interpreted in a number of ways. There was more than a hint of petulance from someone who did not get what he wanted — a preparatory camp before the Asian Cup. There was perhaps the confidence of someone who had his contract extended till 2026 recently and therefore is not at the mercy of his team’s performance at the Asian Cup. There was also an acceptance of the status quo, an attempt to temper down expectations in a country where reality and the recent past is so easily forgotten until inevitable disappointment rudely brings both back up. The Indian football team, at its current level, is not in a position to challenge in Asia or qualify for the World Cup. Even getting close to that will be nothing short of a miracle.
Watching the game from the stands was a certain Arsene Wenger, here in his capacity as the chief of global football development at FIFA. A day before, he had told the AIFF exactly what to do while inaugurating their academy in Bhubaneswar — to equip 5-15 year-olds to be the best technical players in their category. And twenty years later, those five-year-olds might just get India to realistically be in contention for a World Cup spot.