AFC Asian Cup - Qatar, Jan-Feb, 2024

[jayakris]

I think this is officially Asian Cup 2023, though being done in 2024 (Jan 10 thru Feb 10) due to Covid delays earlier.

The draw has come out. Tough draw for India. In group B with Australia. The winners and runners-up of the groups and 4 best third-placed teams will qualify for the round of 16.

A – Qatar, China, Tajikistan, Lebanon
B – Australia, Uzbekistan, Syria, India
C – Iran, UAE, Hong Kong, Palestine
D – Japan, Indonesia, Iraq, Vietnam
E – South Korea, Malaysia, Jordan, Bahrain
F – Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Kyrgyz Republic, Oman

[jayakris]

Our schedule:

January 13, 2024 – Australia vs India - Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium
January 18, 2024 – India vs Uzbekistan - Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium
January 23, 2024 – India vs Syria - Al Bayt Stadium

[sunnyd]

Very, very tough draw for India. Wouldn't be surprised if we get blown out of the water here.

[jayakris]

^^^ Wow, you are still around, @sunnyd. Hadn't seen you for like a decade!! Great to see you. Yeah, we are all still here

You are right. This was a draw from hell for us. We might get blown out of there. I still have not gotten over two minutes of madness we had at the end of the last AFC. We were so close to making the knockouts, after the win over Thailand etc. One of the saddest days in Indian football.

[sunnyd]

Haha @jayakris

Yes, it's been more than a decade since I last came on here. Life happened, and not sure why this forum suddenly popped into my mind out of nowhere last night while I was catching up on some football news!

[jayakris]

Good that you remembered. Yea, this is the only forum that doesn't miss much about Indian sports, and keeps going and going and going... 20 years and it is still here! Do come around, especially on the footballs threads.

[Sin Hombre]

Surprised that Jay and others are not posting here.

We lost 2-0 to Australia today, hung on to stay 0-0 until halftime.

[Omkara]

They were wr 25. So if we held them till 50 mins, it's good. Our defending was good. The keeper did a great job.

Attack looks weakish

[jayakris]

Surprised that Jay and others are not posting here.

We lost 2-0 to Australia today, hung on to stay 0-0 until halftime.

Forgot to write about it. Did not expect much in the match actually. But 0-2 is not a bad loss against Australia

[il_fenomeno]

All in all it was a good performance. I even would say we overperformed going 0-0 into halftime considering the class difference and the amount of corners Australia had. A loss with a small goal difference is what we wanted at least. Well done boys.

In the other match of the group we had 0:0 between Uzbekistan vs Syria. It's a good result which helps us in this group to potentially qualify for round of 16 via the 3rd spot.

[arjun2761]

Looks like a solid defensive effort as the xG also has a 2-0 result even though we has only 29% possession and were outshot 28-4. In fact, our normally solid goalie arguably let in 1 goal on a mistake, otherwise it could have been a 1 goal game.

[jayakris]

The second match is today, against Uzbekistan (Thursday 8 pm). Another tough one. I think they will be as tough as Australia. Very good team.

[jayakris]

Not at all going well today. Down 0-2 after 18 minutes and 0-3 with one more goal in 45+4 before the half time whistle. Yikes. 0-3

[SaniaFan]

Much better second half. Still Uzbeks are dominating but India also had few attacks. One hitting goal post and another drawing a very good save from their goalkeeper. But the gulf in technical skills is too much.

[jayakris]

But really, we got a pretty bad draw this time too. Uzbekistan has been doing very well and has been going up and up in ranking. Now we have to beat Syria to finish third