Intercontinental Cup: Mahmoud Al Aswad, Daleho Mohsen Irandust On Target As Syria Trounce India To Win Maiden Title

Hyderabad: Indian football team’s hopes of winning the Intercontinental Cup title for the 1/3 time changed into dashed after the Blue Tigers lost to Syria 0-Three in the last league match of the three-nation tournament on Monday. Mahmoud Al Aswad and Daleho Mohsen Irandust scored for Syria in the seventh and 77th minutes to break the hearts of the home crowd on the GMC Balayogi Athletics Stadium. While Pablo Sabbag’s strike in the injury time changed right into a mere underlining of Syria’s dominance.

The result meant that Manolo Marquez began his stint as India head coach, after succeeding Igor Stimac, on a disappointing note. He changed into appointed on the helm of affairs in July. Syria had beaten Mauritius 2-0 of their opening match and so they thus ended the round-robin league with six points.

India and Mauritius finished the tournament on one point each and each after playing out a goalless draw on September Three. The very best-ranked team after the round-robin league wins the tournament as there won't ever be any concept of final. India had won the title in 2018 and 2023, while it changed into the first trophy for Syria who had finished 1/3 in 2019.

In truth, this changed into the first time Syria won a title on Indian soil. The West Asian u.s. has a long history of playing tournaments in India, but a title has eluded them before Monday. Syria lost back-to-back Nehru Cup finals to India in 2007 and 2009 before finishing fourth in 2012.

Of their last day out to India in the 2019 Intercontinental Cup, Syria resulted in 1/3 place. In that tournament, both teams played out a 1-1 draw. Within the last meeting between both teams, Syria had beaten India 1-0 in the Asian Cup in Qatar in January, this year.

India made a horrendous start in the match as they conceded a goal in the seventh minute. After an unlimited attack down the very best flank, Al Aswad’s shot went in after a deflection from an Indian defender.

Three minutes later, Alaa Aldin Yasin Dali’s shot from a distance rattled the crossbar and India escaped from conceding their second goal. The West Asians were in command in the first half as Gurpreet Singh Sandhu changed into basically also is often known as into action to thwart the opposite goal-bound move from the Syrians in the 35th minute as he kept out an attempt from Dali again off a corner.

But towards the tip of the first half, India began to gain a foothold in the competition and made some fine attacking moves but failed to get the desired result. India were definitely the higher side in the second half but still conceded two more goals without opening account for themselves. The Indian forwards had not lower than a couple of chances in the second forty 5 minutes but they failed to convert them.

India head coach Manolo replaced Nikhil Poojary and Suresh Singh with Asish Rai and Apuia in the second half, and it gave the impression the move changed into going to pay dividends. Within the Fifty fifth minute, Sahal Abdul Samad made a fine run into the Syrian defence and sent a pass on to Lallianzuala Chhangte, whose shot changed into, nonetheless, parried away by the Syrian keeper.

5 minutes later, it changed into again the same combination of Samad and Chhangte to rattle the Syrian defence nonetheless the latter’s shot changed into blocked by a defender. But against the run of play, Syria doubled their lead in the 77th minute as Daleho Mohsen foxed Anwar Ali on the very best fringe of the box before slipping the ball past Gurpreet Singh who can have done better under the bar.

Three minutes from the regulation time, substitute Edmund Lalrindika sent a thunderous shot from within the Syrian box nonetheless the keeper made a fine save, palming the ball away on the last minute for a corner. 5 minutes were added as stoppage time and Liston Colaco’s fine long range effort beat the Syrian goalkeeper nonetheless the ball came back into play after thudding the horizontal. Some seconds after that, Pablo David Sabbag tapped in the 1/3 goal for Syria to position the match to bed.