India finished its AFC Asian Cup 2023 campaign on a forgettable note with a 0-1 loss to Syria in its third and final group stage match at the Al Bayt Stadium on Tuesday.
Syria’s ‘super sub’ Omar Khrbin scored the winner for Hector Cuper’s side as the Blue Tigers bowed out of the competition with three consecutive losses and no points to their name.
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India had started the game looking for an early break, with Mahesh Singh Naorem coming close to scoring in the fourth minute, only to see it go wide after a deflection. Syria, on the other hand, was seen practising plenty of long and diagonal balls in its final warm-up which was reflected in its play, using a 4-4-2 shape.
It bombarded India with shots continuously but Gurpreet Singh Sandhu’s astute presence ensured the score remained level. His first save came from a corner in the seventh minute. Pablo Sabbag beat Manvir Singh to Jalil Elias’ corner but his header was pushed away by the Bengaluru FC goalkeeper.
The Blue Tigers tried to break the Syrian press with a more aggressive structure, a 3-5-2 formation, when out of possession. Though the shape looked a 4-2-3-1 on paper, Akash Mishra was stationed beyond his own half when out of possession, trying to play as an overlapping full-back.
Syria created overloads through the middle of the park, forcing errors by the holding midfielders. In the 19th minute, Lalengmawia Ralte lost the ball to a marauding Ibrahim Hesar, who then shot from a distance, forcing another save by Gurpreet.
India had two more chances to score and both had captain Sunil Chhetri taking them. While the first – a header from a floating cross by Mahesh – was steered wide of goal, the second, the last shot of the first half, flew off-target.
Minutes into the second half, Sandesh Jhingan limped off the field to be replaced by Nikhil Poojary.
Cuper looked to change his strategy after the restart. Syria had three shots on target in the first half and two of them were from outside the box. In the second half, it started playing more ground passes.
Syria’s Omar Khrbin, left, celebrates after scoring against India. | Photo Credit: AP
And with Jhingan missing in the back-line, the breakthrough eventually arrived in the 76th minute. Lalengmawia lost the ball to Elias in the midfield, who marched up the pitch and passed to Alaa Aldin Yasin Dali, who then got the ball to Khrbin in the centre. Khrbin passed the ball further left to Hesar before meeting the return cross in the box, beating Rahul Bheke and finding the bottom-left corner.
Igor Stimac tried to add fresh energy by bringing on Sahal Abdul Samad and Udanta Singh but the chances remained too far and few between.
With a second clean sheet in three games, Cuper has lived up to his reputation of creating extremely hard-to-break sides.
Syria remains in the race for the knockouts with four points from three games, looking to qualify as one of the four best third-placed teams.
In the other match, Australia drew 1-1 with Uzbekistan, with both sides qualifying for the knockouts directly.
While Martin Boyle put the Socceroos ahead from the spot in the first-half injury time, Azizbek Turgunbaev came off the bench to equalise late in the second half.
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