How King's Cup loss will impact India's FIFA ranking?

India will face Lebanon in the next tie

The India national team fell to a cruel 2-2 (5-4) loss to Iraq in the semi-finals of the 2023 King’s Cup tournament on Thursday, September 7. The Blue Tigers came very close to getting their first-ever win over Iraq, but lady luck would not support them on the day.

They took the lead twice in the game, with Naorem Mahesh Singh opening the scoring in the 16th minute and Iraqi goalkeeper Jalal Hachim scoring a comical own goal in the second half. However, the Lions of Mesopotamia came back on both occasions thanks to two penalties, forcing a penalty shootout.

Iraq were perfect in the penalties, converting all their attempts and won the game due to Brandon Fernandes’ effort hitting the bar. However, this was one of the Blue Tigers’ best performances away from home in a long time and they proved their ability to go toe-to-toe with a higher-ranked team in uncertain territory.

Despite losing the game, India have actually been able to earn some extra points in the latest update to the FIFA World Rankings points system. The Blue Tigers have earned a +1.28 increase in their points, which has gone up to 1209.37 after the game.

Iraq, of course, also got a bump in their points as they earned +1.22 points with the win in the penalty shootout. Technically, this match will be considered as a draw as it ended as one after 90 minutes and FIFA are unlikely to base their points on what happened in the penalty shoot-out afterwards.

With that being said, India are unlikely to see any significant movement in the FIFA rankings chart with this result. They are still sitting on the 99th position in the latest FIFA Rankings with this result, with Iraq also holding their stance at the 70th position.

The Blue Tigers will, however, be pleased to at least get some points with this result, where the players worked extremely hard to frustrate the Lions of Mesopotamia. Despite not being able to win this game, India’s campaign at the King’s Cup is not over yet. They will face Lebanon on Sunday, September 10th in the third-place matchup.

Igor Stimac will probably look to urge his side to win that game, as doing so can add some more valuable FIFA points and possibly impact their chance of moving up the FIFA rankings ladder in the next update.