FIFA World Cup Qualifiers: 10-man India go down to Qatar

Add as a preferred source on Google

Bengaluru/Doha, June 4: A 10-man India suffered a 0-1 loss to Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup champions Qatar in their 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifying Group E round match at Doha's Al Sadd Stadium.

The victory took Al Annabi to 19 points, seven ahead of Oman who have two matches in hand.

A winless Blue Tigers remained in fourth spot in Group E with three points from six matches.

Felix Sanchez's side will take on Oman in their next match on Monday (June 7) while Igor Stimac's team will face off with Bangladesh the same day.

At the Jassim bin Hamad Stadium in Al Sadd, Abdel Aziz Hatem, who plies his trade with Qatar Stars League outfit Al Rayyan scored the all-important winner in the 33rd minute in a match completely dominated by the Asian champions.

The two sides had played out a goalless draw in their first leg match at the same venue in September 2019.

But this time Qatar had the last laugh.

AFC Zone 2022 FIFA World Cup Group E toppers Qatar, who are yet to lose a match, had waves of attacks with their eight to nine players in the Indian half for most of the time.

Goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu had to pull off a series of saves to keep the margin of loss small.

India, however, played with 10 men from the 17th minute onwards after defender Rahul Bheke was red carded after a second booking.

He had earlier received a yellow card in the ninth minute.

India did have two good moves in the match from counter attacks with Manvir Singh in the thick of things on both occasions.

India captain Sunil Chhetri, who returned to the team after recovering from COVID-19 infection, was replaced by Udanta Singh at the resumption of second half.

Igor Stimac's men are two points behind Afghanistan (third with five points).

After the Bangladesh game, India wind up their Group E engagements with a tie against Afghanistan on June 15.

Both matches will be played at the same venue.

(With PTI/AFC inputs)