India's head-to-head record against AFC U-23 Asian Cup Qualifiers opponents UAE

India U-23 has met the UAE U-23 side only twice.

The India U-23 side have discovered their fare at the upcoming AFC U-23 Asian Cup 2024 Qualifiers that will take place later this year. Igor Stimac’s side have been placed in a competitive group alongside the United Arab Emirates, Maldives and hosting nation for the group, China PR.

The group games will take place from September 6-12, with the Indian side travelling to China for the occasion. Among all their group opponents, UAE are definitely the strongest of the lot. They have participated in the AFC U-23 Asian Cup on four of the five occasions that it has taken place so far and are developing as one of Asia’s strongest football nations.

UAE are two-time quarter-finalists in this tournament and definitely have more experience of playing in it than the remaining teams in the group. While India has faced UAE many times over the senior level in the past few decades, the same can’t really be said among the two facing each other at the U-23 level.

For India, their U-23 team has mostly just played among the SAFF (South Asian Football Federation) since the turn of the decade. India has never qualified for the U-23 AFC Asian Cup and have always faltered at the qualification stages. They will, however, need to win their group or finish strongly among the best second-placed teams to book a spot for the U-23 Asian Cup in Qatar next year.

Before that, they’ll need to compete strongly against UAE – a team they’ve not frequently fought with at the U-23 level. So let’s look at these two teams’ head-to-head record ahead of the upcoming qualifying clash.

India U-23 0-1 UAE U-23 (27 October, 2021)

The India U-23 team's previous encounter against the UAE U-23s was back in the qualifying rounds for the 2022 AFC U-23 Asian Cup. Like this time, they were placed in the same group as the UAE side in the previous qualifying group stages, alongside Kyrgyz Republic and Oman. The Blue Tigers actually started their qualifiers strongly with a  2-1 win over Oman, with Vikram Pratap Singh and Rahim Ali getting on the scoresheet. They went into the game against UAE high on confidence, but failed to replicate the heroics against Al Abyad.

The UAE side dominated the game, boasting over 60% ball possession and 11 shot attempts. Ultimately, India gave away a penalty in the 82nd minute, which was converted by left-back Abdulla Idrees to break the Blue Colts’ hearts. India tried their best to get an equalizer but ended up succumbing to a defeat. Even though they won their remaining group games, their inferior goal difference cost them and failed to see them go through to the 2022 AFC U-23 Asian Cup among the best runners-up from the qualifying stages.

India U-23 0-5 UAE U-23 (15 September, 2014)

The only other time that the Blue Colts have faced off against Al Abyad in a competitive match was way back in 2014, during the Asian Games. Held in South Korea, the football stages saw India paired up against UAE U-23 and Jordan U-23 in the group stages. Their group stages went off to the worst possible style against Al Abyad, who boasted a much stronger team at that point of time. They absolutely rolled over the Indian side with a dominant 5-0 win to kick off their Asian Games campaign in style.

Saeed Al Kathiri opened the scoring with a well-taken finish at the 13th minute, before scoring his second two minutes later. Bandar Al-Ahbabi scored the third goal in the 19th minute, basically putting the tie to bed in the first 20 minutes. UAE completely dominated the entire game and didn’t give India a sniff to get back. Al Kathiri completed his hat-trick in the 64th minute, before an own goal from a very young Sandesh Jhingan in the 82nd minute sealed an embarrassing loss for India U-23.

Picture Courtesy for UAE U-23 Team: The Sporting News