Still searching for the first win of the year as well as under head coach Manolo Marquez, India face familiar rivals Malaysia in an international friendly football match in Hyderabad on Monday. (More Football News)
India will be bolstered by the return of senior player and central defender Sandesh Jhingan almost 10 months after last playing for the national team at the AFC Asian Cup in January. He has recovered from his anterior cruciate ligament injury.
The Indian team has played 10 matches so far in the year, losing six of them and drawing four. They have so far played three games under Manolo, who was appointed head coach in July in place of Igor Stimac, and lost once while drawing twice.
India drew against Mauritius and lost 0-3 to Syria in the Intercontinental Cup in September at the Gachibowli Stadium, the venue of Monday's match. The team drew with Vietnam 1-1 in its last match in Nam Dinh on October 12.
If the Indian team does not get a positive result on Monday, it will end the year without a win in 11 matches. Monday's match could also be India's last before the 2027 Asian Cup Qualifiers in March next year.
The India-Malaysia football rivalry goes back a long way. Since their first meeting in a 1957 friendly in Kuala Lumpur, which India won 3-0, until last year's Merdeka tournament semifinal clash in which Malaysia emerged 4-2 winners, the two sides have faced each other 32 times.
That's the most number of times India have played against any opponent in international football, followed by Pakistan (29 matches) and Bangladesh (28 matches).
There's nothing to separate the two sides in head-to-head results. The Blue Tigers and the Harimau Malaya have won 12 matches each, while eight have ended in draws.
There is also little difference in the current FIFA rankings, with India placed 125th and Malaysia 133rd.
Malaysia are coming into the match on the back of a 3-1 friendly win over Laos on November 14.
Both teams know each other fairly well. India have nine players from the Merdeka tournament semifinal clash last month in the current squad -- Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, Sandesh Jhingan, Mehtab Singh, Vishal Kaith, Naorem Roshan Singh, Amrinder Singh, Liston Colaco, Lallianzuala Chhangte and Suresh Singh Wangjam.
On the other hand, 14 of Malaysia's 26 members were in the squad last year. That includes two of the goal-scorers -- Arif Aiman, a young winger from Johor Darul Ta'zim FC, and defender Dion Cools, who is one of their two players plying their trade outside Malaysia (at Buriram United in the Thai League 1).
The other is forward Fergus Tierney, who plays for Chonburi FC in the Thai League 2.
The bulk of the Malaysian squad belongs to three clubs -- Johor Darul Ta'zim FC, Terengganu FC and Kuala Lumpur City FC.
Like India, Malaysia have also undergone changes in the coaching staff since last year. Manolo and his counterpart Pau Martí both hail from Spain, and know each other from their time in Barcelona.
Like Manolo, Martí also took charge in July after Malaysia failed to qualify for Round 3 of the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers.
"They (Malaysia) have been playing good football and it will be a tough game for both sides," said Manolo.
