Report: Indian football team set to drop six places in FIFA Rankings

Published at :January 23, 2024 at 8:43 PM

Modified at :January 23, 2024 at 8:51 PM

(Courtesy : AFC Media)

This will be perhaps a greater setback to India than their performance in the AFC Asian Cup 2023.

The Indian football team faced another defeat at the 2023 AFC Asian Cup, this time against Syria. The Blue Tigers were handed a 1-0 loss by the Qasioun Eagles at the iconic Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor.

Both sides started off strongly and it was an evenly poised game until the first half. But then Sandesh Jhingan’s injury coupled with Syria taking more control of the game, did not help India’s cause and resulted in an unfavourable outcome for the Blue Tigers.

Syria opened the scoring in the 76th minute after super sub Omar Khribin found the back of the net. The forward came off the bench in the 46th minute and became Syria’s star for the afternoon.

India set to drop more places in the FIFA rankings

As per reports, the Blue Tigers are set to drop six positions in the FIFA rankings following their defeat to Syria in their final match of the 2023 AFC Asian Cup group stage. India lost 15.51 points while Syria gained 15.51 points after the match.

India’s ranking after the AFC Asian Cup will be 117 while Syria will jump and find themselves at 91. It hasn’t been an ideal debut campaign for Igor Stimac at the Asian Cup as his side failed to salvage even a single point and lost all of its three games.

This will be India’s lowest ranking under Igor Stimac’s tutelage.

India’s ranking before the start of the 2023 AFC Asian Cup was 102. They dropped four positions and found themselves in 106 after their 2-0 defeat to title favourites Australia. And after the game against Uzbekistan, they dropped four more positions and found themselves at 111.

As mentioned earlier, India are set to drop to 117 after the Asian Cup, making it their worst-ever ranking under manager Igor Stimac. Moreover, this will also be India’s lowest ranking since 2017. The Blue Tigers did not drop below 109 ever since Stimac took over, but the story has completely changed now.

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