Pune: Oman made a late comeback to defeat India 2-1 in the opening Group E match of the 2022 FIFA World Cup and the 2023 AFC Asian Cup Joint-Qualifiers at the Indira Gandhi Stadium in Guwahati, on Thursday.
The Blue Tigers’ talismanic skipper Sunil Chhetri opened the scoring, but Oman made their comeback in the last 10 minutes, when Al-Mandhar Al Alawi struck a brace to win the match for the away side.
India got the early start that they were looking for, with Ashique Kuruniyan running his legs off in the attacking midfield position.
The Blue Tigers had their first real chance around the quarter-hour mark, when Thapa intercepted a ball in the middle of the park, played it to Chhetri, who put Udanta through. The winger jinked past an Oman defender and rattled the cross-bar.
Soon after, Ashique was played into the box has he took the ball away from the rushing keeper Faiyz Al Rusheidi. 22-year-old was in too tight an angle to score.
Igor Stimac’s boys applied a much more cautious approach after the change of ends, and the equaliser nearly came from the most unlikeliest of sources – a miscued clearance by Anirudh Thapa. However, Gurpreet was on hand again, to tip it over the bar.
Oman left it late, but they came back in the last 10 minutes, when Al-Mandhar Al Alawi scored two to win it for Oman. For their first goal, Al-Mandhar was played into the box via a lofted through ball, as the attacker dinked it over Gurpreet to equalise.
Result: India 1 (Sunil Chhetri 24th) lost to Oman 2 (Al-Mandhar Al Alawi 82nd, 90th)
