FIFA confirms fixtures for Intercontinental Cup in Mumbai

The tournament has been officially recognized by world football's apex body and results will count towards the countries' FIFA ranking.

With the Intercontinental Cup just a few weeks away, the fixtures for the tournament were announced earlier today on FIFA's official website. Hosts India will kick off the tournament by facing Chinese Taipei at the Mumbai Football Arena on 1st June.

The Blue Tigers will be facing Kenya three days later, before rounding up the group stages by facing New Zealand in their final group match on 7th June. The anticipated match between Kenya and New Zealand is scheduled to take place on 2nd June, something which can be a treat for the football fans of Mumbai.

Chinese Taipei will face off against New Zealand on 4th June, before rounding up the group stages by facing Kenya in their final match on 7th June. The final is all set to take place on 10th June, with the top two teams from the group facing each other.  All the matches are scheduled to take place at 8 PM IST at the Mumbai Football Arena.

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This tournament will not only be a decent warm-up for Indian fans before the World Cup but will actually be pretty important for the national team as they are listed as official FIFA friendly matches. This means that the outcome of the tournament will help in the FIFA rankings of the sides and give extra motivation for them to put in maximum efforts to go onto lift the trophy on 10th June.

It will also be a nice challenge for India, who are preparing for the  AFC Asian Cup next year where they have been put in a tricky group against UAE, Bahrain, and Thailand. Sunil Chhetri & Co will be looking to prove their mettle against some difficult opponents in the Intercontinental Cup and will not want to let their fans down on their own turf. The other participants have already started practicing for the tournament, while India manager Stephen Constantine also called up a squad to gear up for the event a few weeks ago.

It looks likely that Constantine will give some new faces a chance to impress in the Intercontinental Cup and solid performances could also help them land a spot on the plane for the Asian Cup next year. While the Intercontinental Cup might be termed as a "friendly tournament", neither teams will want to back down from the challenge. With the potential of climbing the ladder in the FIFA rankings on the cards, the Tigers will definitely give it their all in Mumbai next month.

The Fixtures are as follows (All matches will kick off at 8pm):

1 June 2018: India v Chinese Taipei

2 June 2018: Kenya v New Zealand

4 June 2018: India v Kenya

5 June 2018: Chinese Taipei v New Zealand

7 June 2018: India v New Zealand

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8 June 2018: Chinese Taipei v Kenya

10th June 2018: Final