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India’s quest for a place in the third round of the FIFA World Cup 2026 and AFC Asian Cup 2027 Preliminary Joint Qualifiers suffered a serious jolt when they went down to Afghanistan 1-2 on Tuesday, March 26, 2024. The winners trailed 0-1 at half time.
Watch the FIFA World Cup 26 Qualifiers match highlights above!
Skipper Sunil Chhetri, playing his 150th International, kept his date with history by giving the Blue Tigers the lead off a penalty kick in the 38th minute in front of jam-packed stands at the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium in Guwahati. The joy, however, was turned into complete misery when Rahmat Akbari’s shot deflected off a defender to find its way past Gurpreet Singh Sandhu in the 70th minute for the equaliser, and then Sharif Mukhammad dealt the deathly blow by converting a penalty in the 88th minute.
The loss of three points in this home tie left India with just four points from four matches in the four-team Round 2 group. While Qatar lead the group with nine points from three matches, Afghanistan, too, have four points from as many matches.
India have two more matches in hand. While defeating Asian champions Qatar in the away match would be a difficult task, it may finally boil down to India’s hope match against Kuwait on June 6, 2024. But Afghanistan can definitely aspire to overtake India in the points table.
Today is a new low for #IndianFootball.#India lose 1-2 to a weakened #Afghanistan.#Stimac has to go, enough is enough…
And each player has to question himself, if he has given enough for the shirt.
— Arunava Chaudhuri | arunfoot (@Arunfoot) March 26, 2024
INDIA: Gurpreet Singh Sandhu – Nikhil Poojary, Rahul Bheke, Anwar Ali, Subhasish Bose – Jeakson Singh (85′ Vikram Partap Singh), Lalengmawia Ralte – Manvir Singh, Brandon Fernandes (68′ Anirudh Thapa), Liston Colaco (68′ Mahesh Singh Naorem), Sunil Chhetri (68′ Lallianzuala Chhangte)
