FIFA World Cup Qualifier 2026: Indian football team could not repeat history, lost to Qatar 3-0

To qualify for the FIFA World Cup 2026, the Indian football team played a match against Qatar on Tuesday 22 November, but in this match the Indian team had to face a huge defeat. Asian champions Qatar defeated India 0-3 in a FIFA World Cup second round qualifier match.

In this Group A match, the Indian team tried to give a tough competition to Qatar but the visiting team dominated the host team. The Qatar team maintained unilateral dominance in the match that lasted for the entire 90 minutes at the Kalinga Stadium in Odisha. In this match, the Indian team missed some chances, due to which the trend of the entire match changed. If the Indian team had kept these opportunities in its favour, the match would have looked very different.

In this match, three goals for Qatar were scored by Mustafa Tarek Mashal (4th minute), Almeoz Ali (47th minute) and Yusuf Adurisag (86th minute). Let us tell you that before this the Indian team has presented a tough challenge to Qatar. In such a situation, the intentions of the Indian team in this match were very high. Earlier, in the match played four years ago in the year 2019, the Indian team had held Qatar to a goalless draw in their home ground. The team came on the field taking inspiration from that match but could barely create a few chances to score goals.

In this match, the Indian team had two chances in the first half but the team could not capitalize on those chances and lost. The Indian team, which defeated Kuwait 1-0 on November 16 in the opening match of the second round of the qualifiers, has another chance. The Indian team has a chance to qualify for the next round by finishing second in the group. The Indian defense was exposed in the very beginning of the match. The team conceded a goal in the fourth minute itself. On the corner kick, three Qatari players exchanged passes inside the Indian box but none of the home team’s defenders could touch the ball.

Mashal opened the team’s account by hitting goalkeeper Amrinder Singh with a ground kick with his right foot. Coach Stimac had given a chance to Amrinder in place of experienced Gurpreet Singh Sandhu. Akram Afif then missed three chances which saved the Indian team from falling behind by a huge margin. Afif, after missing an easy chance to score in the second minute, missed to increase the team’s goal difference in the 14th, 22nd and 26th minutes. After this, Amrinder made a brilliant save on Mashal’s header. Before the intermission, the Indian team created two chances in which the team narrowly missed the equalizer on the second chance.

Udanta Singh and Anirudh Thapa showed good control of the ball and passed to Lalengmawia Ralte but he failed to place his shot from the edge of the box. Thapa then missed another easy chance. He only had to beat Qatar goalkeeper Meshaal Barsham to score but his effort went wide of the goal post. The Indian team showed the strength to make a comeback at the end of the first half, but at the beginning of the second half, Almeoz Ali’s goal increased the team’s lead to 2-0.

Ali scored four goals for the team in the 8–1 win against Afghanistan. In the 63rd minute of the match, Sahal Abdul Samad entered the field in place of Thapa. After two minutes he had a chance to open the team’s account but he failed to capitalize on the opportunity created by Suresh Singh. Adurisagh scored on Mohammed Albayati’s cross in the 86th minute of the match to put Qatar ahead 3-0. The Indian team will play its next match in the 2026 World Cup Qualifier against Afghanistan on March 21 next year at a neutral venue in Dushanbe (Tajikistan).