With just 5 days now left for the Indian football team's opening match in the AFC Asian Cup 2023 against Australia, the excitement is at its very peak among all the Indian football fans as Sunil Chhetri led Blue Tigers will be taking on Australia after a gap of more than a decade.
The Indian team, led by head coach Igor Stimac and captain of the team Sunil Chhetri, have been grouped in a difficult group with the likes of Australia, Uzbekistan and Syria.
The Indian football team will open its campaign in the AFC Asian Cup 2023 against Australia on the 13th of January with kick-off at 5:00 P.M Indian Standard Time (IST). This will also be the first time that Team India will play against Australia since after the last match between both the teams in the 2011 AFC Asian Cup which the Aussies won.
Talking about head-to-head, in the record books, both the teams have played a total of 8 matches, out of which Australia have won 5 while India have won 2 and 1 match ended in a draw.
Out of all the matches that have been played between both the sides, there was once when the Indian team scored 7 goals past the Socceroos. But there is a great story behind the same, let's talk about that.
It all started with the Indian football team's 4-2 win over Australia in the 1956 Summer Olympic. Australia came into the match with a 2-0 win over Japan in their previous match in the competition while India got a walkover again Hungary due to the team withdrawing from the competition. The quarter-final match between both the teams was played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) and India won the match 4-2 with Neville D’Souza scoring a hat-trick and J Krishnaswamy (also known as Kittu) scored the other goal.
However, the Australian football team believed that their defeat against the Blue Tigers was just a fluke and demanded a remark. But this time, the Indian team coached by the legendary Syed Abdul Rahim bettered the previous record and scored 7 goals against the Socceroos whereas Australia could only find the back of the get only once as India won the match 7-1.
Pradip Kumar Banerjee, Neville D’Souza and J Krishnaswamy scored brace each while Indian team captain Samar Banerjee scored the other goal in the match for the Indian football team.
While a similar result for Team India is not possible this year as both the teams have gone different ways in-terms of development, where Australia have become one of the top football team in Asia, the Indian team has lagged behind, but the Indian football fans can hope that India put-up a good fight against the Aussies in Qatar on the 13th of January.
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