Goal drought, Gurpreet's performance & other talking points from India's defeat against Syria in AFC Asian Cup 2023

Indian football team fail to make it to the knockouts for the fourth time in a row.

Indian football team’s journey at the AFC Asian Cup 2023 ended with a 1-0 defeat to Syria. The Blue Tigers were yet again made to realise that they have a lot of work to do and they are nowhere near the top Asian teams.

After an evenly poised first half, Syria took the lead in the 76th minute with Omar Khribin finding the back of the net. India tried, but not hard enough to get something out of the game.

On that note, let us take a look at the talking points from yet another defeat for India.

Lack of creativity

India lacked creativity in the middle of the park. The Blue Tigers felt the absence of their creator in chief, Brandon Fernandes. Sunil Chhetri was forced to slot into the creative role which reduced India’s attacking threat.

Moreover, the performance from Apuia, Deepak Tangri, Suresh, Sahal and Anirudh Thapa did not help either. The players looked clueless and failed to create anything on the pitch resulting in one more bad performance for India.

Gurpreet’s performance

After two disappointing performances in India’s opening two games, Gurpreet redeemed himself with a very good performance against Syria. He did concede a goal and failed to keep a clean sheet, but had he not been there India would’ve conceded more than just one goal.

The goalkeeper put in an excellent shift under the bar and pulled off multiple crucial saves. Sandhu made two high claims, often came off his line to clear the danger and made four important saves during the match

Jhingan’s Injury

Sandesh Jhingan put in another wonderful performance at the back for India. The defender put his body on the line and gave his everything to defend India’s goal. Jhingan put in multiple tackles, blocks and interception to keep Syria at bay.

However, his second half injury came in as a curse for India. The Blue Tigers conceded a goal after Jhingan was replaced in the second half. And had Jhingan been on the pitch, the story could have been very different.

India fail to make it to the knockouts for the fourth time in a row 

The Blue Tigers lost all of their three games and failed to make it to knockouts for the fourth time in a row. They failed to do so in 1984, 2011 and 2019 prior to this edition. It was an embarrassing performance from the 1964 runners-up. 

India are the only side to have lost all of their three games so far in the 2023 AFC Asian Cup. They lost their first game 2-0 to Australia before losing 3-0 to Uzbekistan and 1-0 to Syria.

India exit 2023 AFC Asian Cup with managing a point and a goal

India ended their 2023 AFC Asian Cup campaign with another disappointing performance. They lost 1-0 to Syria and brought an end to their Asian dream. The Blue Tigers will exit the continental championship without scoring a goal, the only side to do so as of yet.

Moreover, they even failed to salvage a single point from the three matches that they played. They are the only side who are knocked out of the tournament with managing a single point as of now.

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