Despite having made a promising start to their campaign with a crushing 4-1 win over Thailand, the Indian men’s football team will face a stiff challenge when they face hosts and 79th-ranked UAE in their second Group A clash at the Zayed Sports City Stadium on Thursday.
Here are the live updates:
# Here are the lineups of the two sides!
IND UAE
Can the Indians repeat their phenomenal performance against the hosts of the #AsianCup2019? Less than one hour to find out. pic.twitter.com/KJ4WJZbmai
— #AsianCup2019 (@afcasiancup) January 10, 2019
# India vs UAE!
We go again! #BackTheBlue #BlueTigers #AsianDream #IndianFootball #INDUAE pic.twitter.com/5y5mJJ91as
— Indian Football Team (@IndianFootball) January 10, 2019
The Indian football team kicked off their AFC Asian Cup campaign in Dubai with a stunning 4-1 win over Thailand in the opening contest of the coveted tournament.
Thailand, despite being bolstered by the presence of key players such as Teerasil Dangda and Chanathip Songkrasin, were simply outplayed by Sunil Chhetri and Ashique Kuruniyan.
But India cannot sit on its laurels for long as they are up for a much tougher opponent in the form of UAE on Thursday.
Hosts UAE are sitting pretty at 18 places higher than India in the FIFA World Rankings. There strength can be gauged from this simple that they have been a regular at the AFC Asian Cup tournament, while the Blue Tigers have reacjed to this stage only for the fourth time.
The two sides have played 13 times against each other and India have lost eight and registered only two wins. India and UAE last met in 2011 in a FIFA World Cup qualifying match and that match ended in a 2-2 draw.
For UAE, the AFC Asia Cup 2019 tournament has not started on a very positive note as the hosts managed to settle for a 1-1 draw against Bahrain.
Therefore, it would not be wrong to say that India will be more confident than UAE when both sides will take to the field on Thursday. Apart from Chhetri and Kuruniyan, Jeje Lalpekhua, Udanta Singh and youngster Anirudh Thapa also looked in good touch in the opening match against Thailand.
Defenders Sandesh Jhingan and Anas Edathodika will have a very important role to play as UAE is known for playing attacking football and they boast of strikers like Ali Mabkhout and Khalil among their ranks.
India:
Goalkeepers: Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, Vishal Kaith, Amrinder Singh
Defenders: Pritam Kotal, Sarthak Golui, Sandesh Jhingan, Anas Edathodika, Salam Ranjan Singh, Subhashish Bose, Narayan Das
Midfielders: Udanta Singh, Jackiechand Singh, Germanpreet Singh, Pronay Halder, Anirudh Thapa, Vinit Rai, Rowllin Borges, Ashique Kuruniyan, Halicharan Narzary
Forwards: Sumeet Passi, Balwant Singh, Sunil Chhteri, Jeje Lalpekhlua.
UAE:
Goalkeepers: Khalid Eisa, Ali Khaseif , Mohamed Al Shamsi
Defenders: Mohamed Ahmed , Ismail Ahmed , Khalifa Al Hammadi , Fares Juma , Khalifa Mubarak , Al Hassan Saleh , Walid Abbas
Midfielders: Bandar Al Ahbabi, Amer Abdulrahman , Mohamed Abdulrahman , Khalfan Mubarak , Majed Hassan , Ismail Al Hammadi , Ali Salmeen , Khamis Esmail , Saif Rashid
Forwards: Ali Mabkhout , Ahmed Khalil , Ismail Matar , Mohammad Khalvan
Source: Zee News