Three positives and two negatives from India's CAFA Nations Cup 2025 campaign

India finished in the third spot in the CAFA Nations Cup 2025.

The India football team had a successful start to the Khalid Jamil era with their admirable heroics in the 2025 CAFA Nations Cup. The Blue Tigers played in the prestigious continental tournament for the first time, and despite being the second-lowest-ranked team in the competition, they significantly punched above their weight to outperform expectations.

The Blue Tigers were able to surprise many by defeating Tajikistan in the group stages to win their first match under Khalid Jamil. They fought hard to secure a second-place finish in their group and set up a place in the third-place playoff against Oman.

After a gruelling battle in the third-place playoff clash, India were able to win on the penalty shootout to claim the bronze medal from the competition.

Jamil has already made his presence felt by making the Indian side a much sturdier and fearless unit than they were under previous coaches. He must have learned a number of notable things about his players and how to set things up in international football in the CAFA Nations Cup.

There were some impressive things about the Indian team’s performances and some things that must be improved upon.

Also Read: India vs Oman: Gurpreet Singh Sandhu’s heroics, toothless attack and other talking points

Here, we look at the positives and negatives from India’s outing at the CAFA Nations Cup 2025.

Positives

Strong defensive shape

Khalid Jamil is known for maintaining compactness to the defensive shape of any side he’s managed in the past, and it appears that the gaffer has done so with the Blue Tigers as well. Jamil was able to drill his players to hold together a stubborn and tough defensive line for the majority of the matches at the CAFA Nations Cup.

India conceded five goals in their four matches, three of which came in the second half in the 3-0 loss to Iran! For the majority of the tournament, they showcased a lot of grit and steel with their defensive organisation and output, with every defender working really hard to close down spaces for opposition players.

Even the midfielders were able to track back to protect the backline, with Jamil being able to make his side operate as one strong unit to stop the goals from overflowing. The way he has implemented his shape and the defensive sturdiness of his side were a major positive as it will ensure India are able to frustrate opposition teams more ogten going forward.

A different way of scoring goals

The lack of goals has been a huge issue for the Indian football team over the last year or so, as they were unable to score a single goal in their final three matches under Manolo Marquez. Jamil headed into the CAFA Nations Cup with the majority of his strongest attacking players like Sunil Chhetri, Liston Colaco and Manvir Singh not even in the squad!

As a result, he had to tune his players to be a threat from unique scenarios. India scored three goals at the CAFA Nations Cup, and it’s not coincidental that two of them came from throw-ins.

Jamil was able to make the players work hard on creating chances from throw-ins, with the powerful delivery from the likes of Rahul Bheke and Muhammed Uvais putting opposition players under pressure. India were able to score a few really clever goals from the throw-ins, with the players’ aerial duel winning ability and physical prowess helping them succeed in such scenarios.

Gurpreet Singh Sandhu’s resurgence

After Khalid Jamil realised that he wouldn’t be able to call up Mohun Bagan goalkeeper Vishal Kaith into his squad for the CAFA Nations Cup, he didn’t hesitate to recall Gurpreet Singh Sandhu.

Even though the Bengaluru FC goalkeeper was kept away from the Blue Tigers for the previous matches in 2025, he kept working hard in the off-season to work on his weaknesses and improve his prowess in between the goal.

That is why Sandhu was given his spot back in the Indian goal, and he took the opportunities with both hands. The Bengaluru FC man made an excellent penalty save in the win over Tajikistan to help his side get the win.

He kept a clean sheet against Afghanistan after an impressive performance, but reserved his best for last. Gurpreet was rock solid against Oman, making some impressive saves before saving the crucial penalty to win his side the game in the penalty shootout.

Gurpreet appears to be back to his best, being able to showcase rapid reflexes to make crucial saves and having cut down his error-prone nature. After his performances at the Cafa Nations Cup, it’s clear that the India no.1 role is once again his to keep.

Negatives

Young forwards fail to impress

As he was not able to rely on the Mohun Bagan attacking talents and after opting to rest Sunil Chhetri, Jamil headed into the CAFA Nations Cup with quite an inexperienced and youthful frontline options.

he likes of Irfan Yadwad, Vikram Partap Singh and Manvir Singh (Jr) lacked the experience of international football, which is why Jamil wanted to give them the chance to prove their quality in the tournament.

However, none of the young forwards were able to impress the gaffer. Irfan Yadwad had a particularly poor campaign, failing to score in the four games and barely even being able to trouble the opposition defenders or goalkeepers.

Vikram Partap showed shades of promise, but missed a number of chances and wasn’t able to create much, while Manvir failed to make an impact in his short outings.

The Blue Tigers lacked that attacking punch and lethality in the final third, not being able to convert chances properly or bully the opposition defenders in open play. The failure of these inexperienced forwards will probably propel Jamil to turn to more experienced options going forward.

Counterattacking issues continue to plague India

Even though India were able to produce some gritty performances in the CAFA Nations Cup, showcasing their defensive qualities, they were not really able to prove their attacking qualities. It’s not like the defenders and midfielders didn’t allow the forwards to prosper.

They were able to recover possession in key areas many times and help unleash the forwards to burst through onto the opposition box on counter-attacks. It’s just that the Indian forwards were really inefficient when it came to the transitions. They were not able to carry the ball forward quickly enough to put the defenders under panic or create chances from the counter-attacks.

Despite boasting decent pace, the likes of Vikram Partap, Ashique Kuruniyan and Irfan were often lost for creativity or execution in the final third. They just couldn’t be confident enough to go past defenders or burst into the box on the counterattacks.

Unless the Blue Tigers are more clinical in finishing off counter-attacks, they’ll find it very hard to break down opposition sides or win games regularly.

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