India suffered a heart-breaking defeat at the hands of Australia in their AFC Asian Cup opener at Ahmed bin Ali Stadium on Saturday.
Goals from Jackson Irvine (50') and Jordan Bos (73') was enough to hand the Australian football team a well-deserved win over the Indian men's national football team in their opening AFC Asian Cup 2023 Group B match at the Al-Rayyan Stadium. The Blue Tigers came into the match as underdogs but despite the Aussies having most of the possession and the chances, Igor Stimac's men could not produce enough chances against one of the contenders of the tournament. (As It Happened | Football News)
The first-half saw the Socceroos take most of the possession but it was India who had a great chance. Lallingzuala Chhangte's lung-bursting pace was enough to scare the Aussie defence as he twice ran into the opposition box and creating a chance in one of those.
Skipper Chhetri missed a golden chance to convert into the Aussie net as the former diverted his header off target. Post this, the chances dried up for the Indians as they fell into a low-block with Australia took 72% of the possession and had 14 shots on target.
In the dying minutes of the first-half, Sandesh Jhingan had a collisionwith Aussie Kye Rowles with the former needing medical attention.
Despite the dominance in the first-half, the Aussies only had two shots on target despite the 14 attempts.
The game was refereed by Yoshimi Yamashita of Japan, who is the first female referee to officiate at a AFC Asian Cup game.
After a goal-less first-half, the game burst into life in the second as the Aussies scored the game's first goal thanks to Jackson Irvine. It all came from Gurpreet Singh Sandhu howler as the Indian goalie failed to keep hold of the ball and Irvine grabbed onto the opportunity to convert into the net
Keeping his calm, Irvine slotted the ball inside the net to give a well-deserved lead to Australia.
However, in the 69th minuted, the Socceroos were minutes away from conceding a bizzare goal themselves as Indian press forced the Aussies in losing the ball at the back and the backpass had too much weight on it that might have resulted in heading into their own net.
But the Australians did not falter as Jordan Bos scored from his first touch of the game. The substitute player had Luke Mcgree to thank as the former ran inside the box and found Bos free at the far-post with a pass for the latter concert with a easy finish.
The goal was a death knell for India as the players lost morale and and had chances few and far between. This was India's sixth loss to Australia at the AFC Asian Cup.
India's next fixture is against Uzbekistan on January 18 whereas Australia play Syria on the very same day. As far as India football team's chances go, they have every opportunity to go through despite the defeat. In 2019 edition, three of the four third-placed teams progressed with 3 points.