India go down to Oman 0-1 in their 5th match of Group E of FIFA World Cup Qualifier in Muscat.And hence India are virtually knocked out of football World Cup qualifying round after this defeat.
The match started with India making 3 changes to the team played against Afghanistan, Mandar was replaced by Farukh, Pritam by Nishu Kumar, Sahal Abdul by Manvir. In the 6th minute, Rahul Bheke gave away a soft penalty to Oman & which was missed by Muhsen by kicking over the bar.
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India's first corner was earned by Nishu Kumar on 23rd minute, Adil & Pronay earned a yellow card in the successive minutes. At 27th minute Pronay was replaced by Vinit Rai because of shoulder injury and soon after that Oman scored the first goal of the match through Muhsen the man who missed the penalty earlier.
Adil was also replaced by Anas Edathodika as he was carrying a hamstring injury at the 35th minute.
In the 2nd half Gurpreet saved two sure shot goals, Rahul Bheke was replaced by Sarthak Golui as he picked up an injury. India did not have any direct attempt at the goal in the entire match and if it was not for Gurpreet & lack of intent by Oman team the score would have been more than 0-1.
The pressure is now on coach Igor Stimac to put up a team that can play good football throughout the 90 minutes. The coach needs to look beyond a few senior players who have failed to deliver in the World cup qualifiers and he surely needs to look at the injury-prone defenders Anas, Sandesh, Adil, and Pronay.
Our next World cup qualifier is in March 2020, the coach can now look players putting consistent performance in ISL & also in I league.