The Blue Tigers are yet again setting their boots on the floors of Asian soil as they embark their journey to become the next underdogs in Asian football. Igor Stimac led Indian team is high in confidence ahead of their much awaited AFC Asian Cup campaign. The Blue Tigers are grouped alongside the mighty Australia, Uzbekistan and Syria in the Group B where the matches will be played in three stadiums allocated for the group.
India faces previous Asian champions and constant presence in FIFA World Cup team Australia in their first game of the tournament. Here’s the preview ahead of this highly anticipated game.
Head to Head
The Socceroos are not an unfamiliar opponent for the Blue Tigers as they have faced each other nine times with five of them during the pre-independence era. Interestingly, India’s first ever International match recognized by FIFA was against the Australians which ended up as a defeat for the Blue Tigers with a scoreline of 5-3. It was a five-match series with the second game ending in a draw. The first ever win for India came in the third match.
India also defeated Australia in the Olympics after Independence during the 1950’s era, also know to be the Golden Era of Indian football. During this tenure, India was one among the best footballing nations in the entire continent. The last meeting with the Socceroos was in the AFC Asian Cup 2011 in Qatar which ended as a defeat for the Blue Tigers with a scoreline of 4-0.
Recent Form
India
L – W – L – L – L
Australia
W – W – W – W – L
After an impressive period of scintillating footballing display and courageous wins over Asia’s top teams, it is a good time for team India in terms of results to set their boot on Asian soil. The Blue Tigers have won three out of their last five games, with two defeats against Qatar and Malaysia.
They won both the semi-final and the final of the SAFF Championship on penalties after which they where knocked out of the Merdeka Cup when Malaysia scored four past them. Their recent two World Cup Qualifiers also bore mixed results for them. While Manvir Singh’s second-half strike took them over the line against Kuwait, Stimac’s men succumbed to a strong Qatar side, as the latter defeated them by three goals.
Meanwhile, Australia, one among the consistent FIFA World Cup playing nations from Asia, is on a high note after multiple wins in their World Cup Qualification and International friendlies. Their last defeat came against England last year in a friendly game. Ollie Watkins’ lone strike is the only goal they have conceded in their last five games. They have since defeated New Zealand, Bangladesh, Palestine, and Bahrain scoring twelve goals.
The One’s left?
One among the most interesting facts ahead of this clash is only two players from the Indian National team are left from the squad when the Blue Tigers faced Australia in the 2011 AFC Asian Cup. One among them is none other than Sunil Chhetri.
The other name to be noted is the 6ft 6in tall Indian National team’s safe custodian, Gurpreet Singh Sandhu. Sunil was the only player who was in the XI and still survives whereas Sandhu was in the squad during his 2011 Asian Cup campaign. Currently, they are the Blue Tigers’ key hopes in offense and defense in the Asian Cup.
History Rewritten
It will be a proud moment for all the stakeholders of Asian Football as they are set to rewrite history with the involvement of the first ever female referee to officiate in an AFC Asian Cup campaign. It will be Japan’s Yoshimi Yamashita who will lead the charge in the much awaited clash against Australia. She was one among the three female referee to officiate in the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar.
Predicted Line-up : India vs Australia
India XI
Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, Sandesh Jhingan, Pritam Kotal, Nikhil Poojary, Subhashish Bose, Akash Mishra, Suresh Wangjam, Lalengmawia Ralte, Brandon Fernandes, Anirudh Thapa, Sunil Chhetri
Australia XI
Joe Gauci, Harry Souttar, Joe Knowles, Cameron Burges, Aziz Behich, Aiden O Neill, Keanu Baccus, Craig Goodwin, Jackson Irvine, Connor Metcalfe, Mitchell Duke
The Blue Tigers, having had less preparatory time as mentioned by the coach Stimac himself, have a tough time ahead to face the firepower of Australia, Uzbekistan and Syria and advance to the next round. But, the entire contingent, as they have mentioned, believes that they can be underdogs in the campaign. Australia, with Graham Arnold as their head coach has been a force to reckon with the past few seasons with many of their players playing their trade in the top tier football leagues in the world.
It will be a hard test for the Blue Tigers and they have to show their resilience and fighting spirit that they have put on display for the last couple of years against other Asian giants. As we know, in the end, the final result will matter. If they can upset the Socceroos, the night will be remembered forever by the footballing fraternity in the country.
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