A lacklustre performance marked Manolo Marquez‘s return to the Maidaan in Gachibowli as India drew Mauritius 0-0 in the first match of the 2024 Intercontinental Cup in Hyderabad on Tuesday, September 3.
Toughened by the lack of an out-and-out striker who could take up the mantle from the retired Sunil Chhetri, India made a mountain of a molehill from the challenge posed by their opponents in front of a blustering crowd under the lights.
The lack of cohesion in defence, aided by a non-existent attacking midfield added to India’s woes as they failed to punish the visitors for the mistakes that they made, and whatever chances arose were misconstrued due to lack of training.
Manvir Singh and Chinglensana Singh came close to getting on the scorecard for the hosts in the first half, while Lallianzualla Chhangte came into his own and twisted this way and turned the other in the second, only to fall short into the traipsing arms of goalkeeper Kevin Obrian.
Mauritius dominated India completely
In the first half, Mauritius looked more dominant of the two teams, pressing high and pushing India out of their comfort zone consistently. The latter’s fullbacks Jay Gupta and Asish Rai looked all at sea; the former committed errors quicker than it was possible for the exorbitantly-lit Maidaan crowd to fill up.
Star centre-forward Quentin Rao latched onto all the errors made by the Indian midfield and often brought his teammates into play, out of which Jean Aristide and Adrian Francois made the most of the chances sent their way.
Central defender Marc Rose, who led the Mauritians in this game, looked solid in his half, dictating terms which the Indian attackers found hard to agree to. Dylan Collard seemed to be an able ally to Rose, using his tall stature to hold down the likes of Manvir Singh and Colaco with ease.
Gupta struggled to find his feet and seemed as if he were treading on thin ice every time the ball came down the Mauritius right-wing. Although Rai was not challenged as much, he found passes extremely hard to come by.
After half-time, Marquez brought Nandhakumar Sekar and Sahal Abdul Samad on in place of Anirudh Thapa and Liston Colaco respectively to add some attacking impetus to the side, but the duo seemed only as good as the rest of their teammates.
Floundering with the ball more often than their coach would have liked to, India appeared to be rusty beyond measure and struggled to put more than two passes together in their opponents’ half.
The Catalan head coach, leading his wards out in front of a stadium he had last left in a huff after the 2022-23 season after taking Hyderabad FC to the semifinals of the ISL Cup, appeared conservative with his choices in midfield, handicapped though he was with lack of options in attack.
Sahal Abdul Samad, perhaps the sole attacking midfielder India had called up for this tournament, was named on the bench even as the defensive-minded trio of Jeakson Singh, Anirudh Thapa and Apuia took time to mark their opponents or control of the pace of the game.
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