Uzbekistan show mirror to Indian football in a 3-0 rout in AFC Asian Cup 2024

All it took was three minutes for Uzbekistan to take a pinprick and burst the balloon under which Indian football was operating going into this clash. There was an assumption that the toughest team in their group was well behind them and that it was now time to play football sans fear. Instead, India got an Uzbekistan team that’s easily one of the top 6 teams in Asia, quite markedly better than Australia, and one that scored three goals in the first half itself to quell any hopes that the Southeast Asians had of making this a fight.

And that fight disappeared from India rather quickly – a slow looping ball into the edge of the Indian box was not cleared as it should have, a mere three minutes into the game. And even if it wasn’t cleared, Sandesh Jhingan was caught staring at the path of the ball inside his box while Abbosbek Fayzullaev looped a header over goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu for Uzbekistan’s first goal. Three minutes in and India were already behind.

While it was clear that the Indians were taking their time warming up, it was also quite evident that even the best-suited team was going to be no match for the Uzbeks. It wasn’t that they were an extraordinary team, but rather one that fulfilled their fundamentals soundly. Not once did Uzbekistan have to take their legs out of second gear, such was their dominance against the Indians.