As the senior Indian football team is set to take on the Uzbekistan football team in their 2nd match of the AFC Asian Cup 2023 in Qatar, the Sunil Chhetri led side would look to take it a notch better after a tremendous outing vs Australia in the first match of the tournament.
The Indian football team displayed a valiant effort in their AFC Asian Cup 2023 opening match against Australia, holding the Aussies for 50 minutes in the match, frustrating them until Jackson Irvine scored for the Socceroos and eventually Australia won the match 2-0.
The next challenge awaits for the Indian team in the form of Uzbekistan football team, who come into the match after playing out a rather underwhelming 0-0 draw vs Syria, the 4th team in the group.
The head-to-head record between both the teams don't look good for the Blue Tigers as they have never won a match against the White Wolves out of 6 outing. Uzbekistan have won 4 times while there have been 2 draws between the teams.
Meanwhile, both the teams have not faced each other in the recent times, to be exact, in the last 2 decades in senior level. However, when it comes to the youth level, India U17 football team played out a couple of matches against Uzbekistan in 2023. At the start of the year, the Blue Colts played some friendly matches against Uzbekistan, but the real action was at the AFC U17 Asian Cup 2023.
India vs Uzbekistan U17 Asian Cup 2023 Throwback
Both the Indian football team and the Uzbekistan football team faced off against each other in the AFC U17 Asian Cup 2023, where Uzbekistan scored a 80th minute goal to win the match despite a valiant fight from the Indian team.
In the AFC U17 Asian Cup 2023 match between India and Uzbekistan, the Indian team were not up to the mark as they looked lackluster. Uzbekistan dominated the proceedings in the first half, however, they were left disappointed after the first 45 minutes as Indian goalkeeper Sahil denied a couple of opportunities.
The Indian team started off well, playing good football for the first 10 minutes, but Uzbekistan slowly gained momentum and never looked back. Uzbekistan launched a flurry of attacks, but the Indian defence was up for the fight, including goalkeeper Sahil between the posts as he had to make number of saves. However, the first-half ended 0-0.
The 2nd-half was also no different as Uzbekistan kept on piling the pressure, but it was like impossible to beat goalkeeper Sahil on the day, until the 80th minute heart-break for the Indian team.
It was Reimov who scored a bullet of a shot to give the lead to the Uzbekistan team off a brilliant cross from Uzbekistan captain Mirzayev. A valiant effort of 80 minutes for the Indian team went in vein as eventually Uzbekistan football team won the match due to the solitary goal. The Indian team later on went out of the competition after a end to end fight against Japan, the eventual champions of the tournament. The Indian team finished 3rd in their group ahead of Vietnam.
And as the Indian senior team is set to take on the Uzbekistan team in the AFC Asian Cup 2023, the Indian fans will hope that the Blue Tigers not only produce a great defensive display, but also produce attacking moves and eventually find the back of the net and do what the U17 boys couldn't, pick-up a win against the White Wolves. Can the Igor Stimac and Sunil Chhetri led boys do it, we can just wait for the 18th of January, 8 P.M IST kick-off.
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