International Friendly 2024: Players debut, winless campaign & other talking points from India vs Malaysia

The Indian football team end the year with a winless campaign.

As the final international break of 2024 nears its end, India wrapped up a hard-fought 1-1 draw against Malaysia in an international friendly at the Gachibowli Stadium in Hyderabad. The Blue Tigers have now failed to win a game in eleven outings this year and have experienced a winless year for the first time in ten years.

Malaysia started the game on the front foot while India had a few chances here and there. The visitors took the lead courtesy of a howler from Gurpreet Singh Sandhu and silenced the crowd. India restored parity after multiple attempts, thanks to a wonderful header from Rahul Bheke. The Malayan Tigers came close to scoring the winner, but just couldn’t find the back of the net.

On that note, let us take a look at the talking points from this game.

Blue Tigers end 2024 without a win

India ended 2024 without a win as Manolo Marquez and company continue to wait for their first-ever win. The year began with the 2023 AFC Asian Cup heartbreak in Qatar where the Blue Tigers lost all of their three games followed by a couple of disappointing World Cup qualifier games against Afghanistan. 

A draw against Kuwait was backed up by a controversial defeat to Qatar to wrap up India’s 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers. As a result, Igor Stimac was shown the exit door and Manolo Marquez was handed over the hot seat. A draw each against Mauritius, Vietnam and Malaysia coupled with a defeat to Syria summed up 2024 for the Blue Tigers under Marquez.

Four players make their national team debut 

Although India have failed to secure a satisfactory result, there are some positives to take away from this game. The biggest takeaway from this game would be the debut of five new players as Manolo Marquez continues to search for his best starting XI. Irfan Yadwad found himself in the starting XI while the others came on in the second half.

Valpuia came on and settled in well into the backline followed by the inclusion of Jithin MS midway through the second half. Vibin Mohanan came on late in the game and made their national team debut. This move from the Spanish head coach speaks volumes about his ability to experiment and give chances to new faces.

First winless year since 2014

The Blue Tigers have experienced a year to forget. Things went from bad to worse for India as they hit rock bottom. Unfortunately, this is India’s first winless year since 2014 when they played just two games and failed to win on both occasions. India’s last win came more than a year ago in an away game against Kuwait and since then they have not had the chance to celebrate a victory.

This is only the fourth time in the 21st century when the Blue Tigers have failed to win a single game in a calendar year. The first winless year was 2002 when they played out a draw and a defeat against Jamaica. In 2006, India faced six defeats and a draw and went winless. The third year was 2014 when they played out a 2-2 draw against Bangladesh before facing a defeat to Palestine.

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